Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa

Media statement

Tuesday, 23 September 2014

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) Northern Cape would like to urge the provincial government to swiftly address the severe shortage of nurses in the Namaqua District as many health facilities work on skeleton staff at many health facilities, a situation that is highly characterised by assistant nurses taking charge of the wards and more resignations of the few hublot replica watches remaining staff due to fatigue.

As a second-last resort last week, nurses at Springbok Hospital drew up a petition demanding that conditions be improved at the hospital as well as asking for the resignation of the current CEO and District Manager as the nurses at the hospital feel that management is not concerned about the conditions under which they find themselves. On many occasions the CEO has snubbed a request for a meeting by nurses and, if he accedes to it, he would only avail himself for five minutes provided that he is the one who will do the talking.

DENOSA views this leadership style of the CEO as the most autocratic which provides a fertile ground for the manifestation of more problems at the institution, which remain unresolved. Upon a request by DENOSA Provincial Secretary for a meeting with the CEO, he bluntly said he will only meet nurses at a time that suits him.    

Nurses in the hospital and in the whole district have reached a point where they are feeling that enough is enough. They feel that their communities are being put at risk as well as their professional well-being as the department is not listening to their many cries for help. 

As DENOSA we have been questioning the provincial department on the massive shortage of nurses in the province, especially in the Namaqua District which is the worst affected. A study done by the department showed that a quarter of the nurses in the province would be reaching retirement age in the next 5 years, which would further put pressure on the existing nurses in the province. And those do not include nurses that would leave the service due to illness, death or resignation.    

The enormous shortages have resulted at many clinics where nurses have to attend to large volumes of patients alone as in the case of Fraserburg. Nurses are becoming overworked and burnt out due to this. There were instances where services had to be halted and facilities closed due to the shortage of nurses early this year as was the case with Alexander bay CHC, which has subsequently reopened with fewer staff than when it closed.

In many other facilities around Springbok many services like maternity services and other in-patient services had to be stopped due to shortage of nurses and infrastructure problems at the facilities which resulted in those patients having to be transferred to Springbok Hospital which is also facing a crisis with a severe shortage of nurses. 

Matters at Springbok Hospital have worsened since the beginning of the year because of the resignation of nurses from the hospital as a result of the conditions and the resultant fatigue.

Staff at this hospital feels that they do not receive any kind of support from both the hospital management and district management and would rather be threatened instead of being listened to. On many occasions it has become a norm for lower category nurses to find themselves working outside of their scope of practice as stipulated by the South African Nursing Council (SANC) and this endangers community members and themselves on a professional level, which could even lead to litigation against the provincial department.

DENOSA urges the department of health in the province to look into the matter urgently, before the worst happens. Replica Cartier Watches

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

For more information, contact:

Anthony Vassen, DENOSA Provincial Secretary in Northern Cape

Mobile: 082 450 9132

Website: www.denosa.org.za

Facebook: DENOSA National Page

Twitter: @DENOSAORG