Sowetan reports that a civic organisation has called on the Gauteng government to hire more staff members at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (Bara) or face the wrath of the masses.
On Thursday, members of the SA National Civic Organisation (Sanco) held a peaceful protest outside the hospital in Diepkloof, Soweto, in support of the plight of hospital staff. Provincial Sanco chairperson Chris Malatjane said they were there because the department continued to ignore requests to resolve problems at the hospital. “We want to see doctors and nurses hired in numbers. We want to see more security,” Malatjane stated. He said Bara needed a bigger budget as it also provided academic training and healthcare for people from the SADC region. He added that it was disturbing that people were dying at the facility because doctors were overworked. The health department was given 14 days to respond. Sanco deputy chairperson in the Johannesburg region, Phashe Magagane, said they would mobilise all their branches to engage in a massive protest action should the department fail to resolve the issues. “There should be an increase in the number of doctors, nurses, cleaners and porters in this hospital,” Magagane indicated. The same issues were raised during previous protests organised by labour unions, which called on government to save the facility from falling apart.
- Read more of this Sowetan report by Zoë Mahopo at SA Labour News
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