Nurse’s union calls on health department to stop making ’empty promises’

The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union (Ynitu) has called on MEC for Health in Gauteng Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko to refrain from making empty promises, in order to gain media support.

Oral reply

The union’s general secretary Lerato Mthunzi was referring to Nkomo-Ralehoko’s reply to the Gauteng Legislature, that the health department intends to re-open Kempton Park hospital.

The 300-bed hospital was closed down in 1997 because it was “underused”.

Re-opening could be a positive step

“If the hospital were to reopen this would be a positive step because Tembisa Hospital is struggling under the strain. There is a desperate shortage of health care facilities, staff and also medicine and equipment in the health sector generally, and this puts a major strain on workers as well. It makes the task of providing quality healthcare even more difficult,” said Nkomo-Ralehoko.

Welcomed but sceptical

Mthunzi said although the announcement was welcome, the nurse’s union was sceptical about it because of the lack of detail in the plan; there are no timelines for when the hospital will re-open.

All that was given was the “mere intention” to demolish the structure and build a new one.

“We have serious doubts regarding the commitment of the Department of health. They have a track record of chasing public relations and making announcements in order to gain support in the media, but we know these are empty promises,” said Mthunzi.

‘PR stunts’

“These PR stunts by the health department have a direct negative impact workers who are completely overburdened because we have a dire shortage of hospital beds. We call on the department of health to stop engaging in PR and to actually keep their promises for a change.”

“We need Kempton Park hospital to be up and running as soon as possible in order to ensure that our communities have greater access to healthcare services. The Covid-19 pandemic exposed that we are not able to adequately respond to a major pandemic and we seemingly have not yet learned any lessons.”

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