Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa

Media statement

Monday, 26 May 2014

Facility out of diesel for generators, yet electricity remains faulty during winter since 2011

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) would like register its outrage at the continuing negligence and non-caring attitude by management at Itireleng Community Health Centre (CHC) in Dobsonville, following a chain power outages at the facilities and yet no preparations have been made as the facility’s generators is without a diesel.

DENOSA calls, with great urgency, on the provincial department of health to account on this dangerous issue before many lives of community members get lost as a result.  

Since 2011, power has been faulty during winter at the facility, leaving midwives in darkness while performing life-saving duties at maternity section. Nurses had to accept 

When DENOSA attended a meeting with the management at the facility where, the management walked out of the meeting without any of the issues our members would like to see being addressed having been looked at.

The long-standing issues we intended to be discussed include generators without diesel while unannounced power interruptions have become the order of the day at the clinic, and yet nothing gets done, two months through the new financial year.

As DENOSA, we feel that allowing our members to work under such unsavoury conditions would be tantamount to setting nurses for failure as the hospital management has not shown any will to resolve the matter urgently (three years is a long time). The insistence by the management, which has admitted to having reported these problems, on excluding DENOSA as a labour representative like ourselves during meetings around the matter borders on undermining the conditions of employment for our members.

As advocates of a Positive Practice Environments (PPE) for nurses and patients, DENOSA witnessed a negative practice environment upon arriving at the facility today. Faulty and non-functional life-saving equipment are some of the glaring risks for the livelihood of patients at the facility. For example, heaters at maternity ward are not working and yet it is winter, while the precondition for caring for babies in a ward is that the ward must be warm.

While the clinic has been referring arriving patients to Zola CHC, DENOSA has observed that this process has not been well-coordinated and communicated with community leaders as they have continued to arrive at the hospital.

DENOSA hopes that tomorrow’s meeting at 11h00 will come up with workable solutions to the problems at the clinic, otherwise health workers would be set for failure, something DENOSA is not willing to allow.

End

Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) Gauteng.

For more information, contact:

Matshidiso Dipudi, DENOSA Provincial Organiser in Gauteng:

Mobile: 079 501 5423

Website:  www.denosa.org.za