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DENOSA strongly condemns the killing of a doctor in Khayelitsha
Media statement
Friday, 04 July 2014
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) strongly condemns the killing of a doctor at Khayelitsha Health Centre on Thursday and would like to caution that more health professionals would leave township facilities if their safety is not looked into seriously.
Forty-two year old Dr Michael Aluko, A locum at both Khayelitsha Health Centre and Khayelitsha Hospital, was working his overtime shift at the former when he went to the nearest garage to buy some food, leading to his subsequent death in what appeared to be a case of hijacking and robbery.
Safety of health workers is one crucial pillar that the Positive Practice Environments (PPE) campaign highlights which DENOSA has embarked on in collaboration with SAMA. Nurses and doctors get targeted and mugged both inside and outside health facilities where they work. And this incident bears testimony to the typical conditions that doctors and nurses work under at night, where they have to expose themselves to danger by looking for food in nearest outlets whereas a canteen for night duty staff would be showing care over their safety.
Working under unsafe environment would always have an impact on the quality of the output of the workforce, and it often lowers the motivation levels of workers. For instance, doctors and nurses at the concerned facility were not keen to return to work on the weekend as a result of this incident and one locum doctor left the facility on fears of what had happened.
With Khayelitsha being the third-biggest township, DENOSA would like to warn that health professionals would leave the facilities in the area in large numbers if their safety is not looked into with the seriousness that it deserves. This does not mean that the incident of this nature has not happened in or nearer to other facilities because of tight security. It’s simply because it has not happened yet, sadly.
For the sake of those health professionals who are still alive, DENOSA would like to urge both the national and provincial departments of health to provide comprehensively safe conditions of work for their night duty employees.
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
For more information, contact:
Sibongiseni Delihlazo, DENOSA Communications Manager
Mobile: 079 875 2663
Tel: 012 343 2315
Website: www.denosa.org.za
Facebook: DENOSA National Page
Twitter: @DENOSAORG
