Times Select reports that critically ill patients lay unattended as “tsotsis” denied staff access to Tshepong hospital outside Klerksdorp in the North West on Wednesday and asked doctors to pay R20 to enter their workplace.
Desperate doctors and nurses were eventually flown in by helicopter. But strikers then entered the hospital and forced the nurses to go outside, while overturning rubbish bins. One man, with a gunshot wound to the neck, died, but it is not known if he would have survived had he been seen earlier. Doctors say the hospital, with more than 450 beds, is one of the “most functional hospitals” in the North West because it has many specialists and registrars in training. The hospital buys gloves, medicines and syringes privately to avoid stock-outs because a strike at the provincial supply depot has prevented clinics and hospitals from accessing medicines. All 17 clinics in the Klerksdorp, Stilfontein and Orkney area were shut down on Wednesday by strikers. Members of union Nehawu are striking to demand an end to outsourcing in the health sector, and for vacancies to be filled. It also wants overtime pay that is outstanding. The union has disrupted the supply of drugs since February. The strike has been the catalyst for calls for provincial Premier Supra Mahumapelo to step down with protests intensifying this week across the province.
- Read this report by Katharine Child in full at Times Select (paywall access)
- Read too, Patient dies in Klerksdorp hospital as strikers prevent doctors from doing their job, at BusinessLive
- And also, More shops looted and hospital invaded as violence spreads in North West, at News24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page