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DENOSA and COSATU Mpumalanga to lead nurses march to provincial Department of Health on 5 October over poor conditions in health facilities
MEDIA ALERT
Nursing our critically-ill health system out of ICU…
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in Mpumalanga, supported by COSATU, will be marching to the Mpumalanga Department of Health Provincial Offices in Nelspruit on Wednesday the 05th of October 2016 to handover a memorandum to the MEC for Health Mr. G Mashego. DENOSA Mpumalanga is calling all members of the society and progressive movements to join hands as we take to the streets on the issues below which seek to nurse and remove the province’s critically ill health system from the ICU it finds itself in.
Members of the media are cordially invited to attend the march and report on the issues the march will raise.
Poor state of health in the province
We have observed with great concern and serious dissatisfaction the continued demoralizing state of the conditions in which health workers and nurses in particular are expected to render health services. As nurses, we cannot continuously pretend to act normally in the face of abnormal shortage of staff especially lower catergories in our health facilities. It saddened us that there are a number of unemployed Auxillary and Enrolled Nurses that are roaming the streets of our province while nurses are extremely overworked and suffering from severe burn-out, the same the burn-out is mis-diagnosed as bad attitude by the authorities.
We further could not fold our arms when the department continues to pay qualified Professional Nurses as Enrolled Nurses or in worst cases as Auxillary Nurses. We view that as cheap labour practice by the Department of Health. The march will therefore call for:
- Translation of all nurses who are long overdue and backdating retrospectively with effect from date of their qualification.
- Implementation and appointment of the fully fledged Nursing Directorate in the province where nursing issues regarding practice, administration and education will be managed.
- The relevant departments to speedily increase the reduced security personnel in the health facilities with failure. We have observed that the private security companies and their handlers in their quest to maximize profit have reduced the number of security personnel in health facilities and by so doing they have compromise the safety of the health workers and nurses in particular, the patients and the public property and resources including the community at large that are utilizing those facilities.
- We are saying #NursesLivesMatter, hence we are calling for total scrapping on outsourcing of security services in health facilities.
- #BursaySystemMustFall. We oppose the contemplated Bursary System for student nurses in the province as it has caused nothing but chaos and regression in other provinces.
Slow pace on NHI
We are also seriously concerned and disappointed with the snail pace in the manner in which information is dispatched regarding the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) to the health workers which are the implementers and the society at large as recipient of the Universal Health Coverage. We call upon all stakeholders and authorities to pull resources together and ensure that the NHI survives the onslaught and attacks from the capitalists who are benefiting on the current system and all out to ensure that the NHI does not see the light of day.
In Conclusion, the Department of Health in South Africa is advocating for provision of quality health care services. This can be achieved through adequate staffing in our health care facilities from primary health care facility to the last provider of health services. The Human Resources for Health of South Africa: HRH strategy for health sector 2012/2013-2016/17 clearly stipulate how the nursing staffing should be addressed by the Department of Health.
DETAILS OF THE MARCH ARE AS FOLLOWS:
DATE: Wednesday 05 October 2016
VENUE: Provincial Department of Health Offices, Government Complex, Nelspruit
TIME: 10h00
CONTACT PERSON: Nhlanhla Dladla, DENOSA Provincial Secretary in Mpumalanga
MOBILE: 082 821 1471
END.
Issued by Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in Mpumalanga
For more information contact:
Nhlanhla Dladla, DENOSA Provincial Secretary
Cell: 082 821 1471
Telephone: 013 752 4942
Email: nhlahlad@denosa.org.za
Or
Mzwandile Shongwe, DENOSA Provincial Chairperson
Cell: 079 501 5131
Email: mzwa1548@gmail.com
Website: www.denosa.org.za
Facebook: DENOSA National Page
Twitter: @DENOSAORG
