Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa

Media statement

Thursday, 26 February 2015

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in Gauteng would like to put it on record that overcrowding at Mamelodi Hospital is one of the reasons we marched to the Premier’s office to hand over the memorandum in November 2013.

We would also like to warn that the situation in other facilities is likely to get worse as resignation of nurses is causing more strain on few remaining nurses in facilities.

A concerned witness filmed the overcrowding at Mamelodi Hospital where pregnant women had to sit on benches due to unavailability of beds, where some were transferred from the surrounding clinics. The video was obtained by eNCA which broadcast it yesterday. Nurses in many facilities are forced by circumstances to care for patients under such conditions, and unfortunately community members often feel nurses are the ones to blame for such conditions, which is not the case.

Nurses make use of the tools that the facility has procured for its health professionals. In situations where there is overcrowding, nurses’ pledge bars them from turning patients away because there are no beds, hence patients often have their drips while on the floor if there are no beds available. 

DENOSA acknowledges that the Department of Health in the province has vowed to investigate the matter, but would like to stress that these challenges need no investigation more than hiring of enough health professionals and procurement of sufficient equipment that is in line with the ever growing population that each facility looks after.

DENOSA would like to remind the department that when it marched in November 2013 about the negative conditions that patients and health professionals are cared for and work under in facilities around Gauteng during our launch of a ‘Positive Practice Environments (PPE) campaign that there was never a response to memorandum. We are not going to say ‘we told you so’, because we still believe that health professionals can still work together with government in identifying and addressing the challenges together with community members.  

DENOSA would like to warn that conditions in many health facilities are likely to suffer even more, as thousands of nurses who resigned from as early as last year have not been replaced. Most nurses resigned because of misinformation and rumours around retirement reform where word of mouth made rounds claiming that public servants won’t receive their lump sum payment if they resign after 1 March 2015.

These rumours have caused havoc in many health facilities and DENOSA would like to know if any action is taken to replace the thousands that have since left the practice. This curiosity is in light of the announcement by Finance Minister in his Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in October last year to withdraw funding for positions which have been vacant for some time.

This will create a norm where overcrowding will be the order of the day in health facilities, and the biggest province such as Gauteng will feel the thick end of the stick in this case. DENOSA’s concern is that communities will continue to see laziness on the few nurses as the main reason for overcrowding.

End

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

For more information, contact:

Simphiwe Gada, DENOSA Chairperson in Gauteng

Mobile: 079 501 4869

Tel: 011 440 4142/0125