DispatchLive reports that one of the Eastern Cape’s most important rural hospitals has become a ghost facility after doctors and nurses walked out on Monday, leaving patients to fend for themselves or rely on managers for treatment.
The decision by most of the health workers at Tafalofefe Hospital in Centane to abandon their stations brought home the reality of an ongoing health crisis fuelled by a stand-off between the provincial department of health (DOH) and health workers. The DOH has come under fire from unions for not providing adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), while a culture of fear of infection is rife among medical personnel who refuse to put their own lives at risk. On Monday and Tuesday, patients at the hospital watched helplessly as health workers went home or embarked on protest action outside the building. The more than 100 people working at the hospital are demanding proper protective gear, more testing kits, the hospital to be disinfected, the decontamination of work stations, and managers to refrain from instructing staff who test Covid-positive not to disclose their status to colleagues. On Monday afternoon, only a few workers were on site, as most had gone home. By Tuesday afternoon, staff had still not returned to work and were instead protesting outside the hospital. A spokesperson for Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba refuted claims that a hospital clerk had died after contracting Covid-19 and said the deceased employee’s test results had come back been negative.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Bongani Fuzile at DispatchLive
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