The Citizen reports that the Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union has accused the government of Gauteng of poor planning in light of several overcrowding incidences highlighted on social media last week.  

The union expressed outrage after images of pregnant women sleeping on benches at Tembisa Hospital on the East Rand went viral on Facebook and Twitter.  Union president Lerato Maduma-Gova said it had received confirmation that just two midwives had to care for 96 pregnant mothers during the day shift, while three took care of 97 patients in the evening.  Despite the hospital disputing these facts, Maduma-Gova insisted that this was the reality and that the neonatal ward, with capacity for 40 babies, was overcrowded by over 80%.  According to Maduma-Gova, government was using an archaic human resource management system which, she felt, had not been changed significantly since the dawn of democracy.  Meanwhile, a visit by Jack Bloom, Democratic Alliance (DA) shadow health MEC, to Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria showed overcrowding there was also a big concern.  Bloom and another party member, Alan Fuchs, visited the hospital at 4am on Thursday to find “patients started queuing at that time, to ensure they were seen by a doctor that day”.

• Read the full original of Simnikiwe Hlatshaneni’s report in the above regard at The Citizen
• Read too, Overcrowding at Tembisa Hospital 'exaggerated', says management, at SowetanLive

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