Celebrating 27 years of uniting nurses

DENOSA Tshwane gives Tshwane District Health authorities 14 days to respond to nurses’ grievances in health facilities

Media statement

Friday, 26 November 2021

PRETORIA – The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in Tshwane has given the authorities at the Tshwane District Health 14 days to respond to the grievances raised by the organisation on Thursday 25 November 2021 in a memorandum that was submitted on behalf of nurses in a joint march on the streets of Tshwane.

The capital town’s busiest streets, Lillian Ngoyi and Francis Baard, were brought to a standstill as DENOSA leaders led hundreds of nurses on the streets to the Tshwane District Health offices in the city centre. Civic organisation SANCO also joined the march with communities from Soshanguve who use Boikhutsong Clinic.

Community members submitted their memorandum to the Tshwane District Health authorities, which expressed concerns about the health of patients who have to queue outside the clinic from early in the morning, and the prolonged delays due to the shortage of nurses at the clinic. The community members placed it on record to the authorities that failure to respond to their demands will lead them to opening the new clinic by force and direct nurses to the newly-built structure.

DENOSA Tshwane commends the leadership of the community of Soshanguve and also calls on many other communities to add their voice and assist healthcare workers on issues that affect both communities and healthcare workers alike in clinics.

The march took place just a day after another civic organisation, Treatment Action Campaign, released a report on the state of health in Gauteng. The report confirmed that there is a huge shortage of nurses in many Gauteng clinics.

DENOSA leaders led the march to the district offices where a memorandum of demands was handed over to the Director of Tshwane District Health, Mr. M. Makhudu. The demands included:

  • An end to frequent interruptions in water supplies to the clinics in the district, which makes the work of nurses impossible to carry out especially on critical emergency cases like trauma and carrying out deliveries;
  • Hiring of nurses, insourcing of services in the district as means to address the relentless attacks of nurses in clinics across the district;
  • Correct placement and payment of nurses in district hospitals according to their newly-acquired specialty qualifications;
  • The opening of two newly-built clinics, Mandisa Clinic in Hamanskraal and Boikhutsong Clinic in Soshanguve within seven days. Nurses in Boikhutsong Clinic work in an old and small structure with no proper ventilation or space to practice social distancing. As a results, nurses are always infected (by Wednesday 24 November, seven nurses have been confirmed to be positive with COVID-19, and the 4th wave will push the rate of infection among nurses to dizzy heights);
  • The District and clinics must be assessed to check if they comply with the OHS standards and reports be provided on the Quality Improvement Plans of those facilities with immediate effect. Services at Skinner Clinic, however, must be relocated to the buildings that are safe for the nursing staff;
  • The District must stop exploiting nurses and address the shortage challenges of the District by sourcing enough nursing staff to cover shortage. Nurses must never be used to work in pharmacy, perform clerical duties and any other allied related duty but must strictly perform nursing duties;
  • The District must get Covid-19 contractual workers (either nurses on pension or unemployed nurses) to work at the vaccination sites and also deal with Covid-19 related matters to ease the burden of the nurses who are currently working at the respective workplaces; and
  • All qualified Primary Health Care (PHC) Professional Nurses in all clinics should be translated with immediate effect as they are subjected to perform duties in a specialised field with speciality qualifications as expected by the South African Nursing Council without being paid for the specialities.

DENOSA Tshwane will wait patiently for the two weeks that it has given the Tshwane District Health office to respond in. In the event that the office fails to meet the deadline, DENOSA Tshwane will take the next course of action as mandated by the nurses of Tshwane.   

End

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

For more information, contact:  

Bongani Banda, DENOSA Tshwane Regional Chairperson.

Mobile: 071 677 5071

Mogomotsi Seleke, DENOSA Tshwane Regional Secretary.

Mobile: 082 590 6899

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