This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
News24 reports that a patient, who apparently suffers from acute psychosis, stabbed a nurse with a knife at Bhisho Hospital because he refused to share a cigarette with him.
The Okapi knife used to wound the employee was stolen from a security guard's lunch bag, which had been left unattended. These details are contained in a report compiled by the hospital's CEO. The 20-year-old patient stabbed Nkosinathi Maphukatha on the left side of the chest. Maphukatha's right hand was also injured when he attempted to defend himself from the knife-wielding patient in the hospital’s courtyard. Doctors treated the wounds and sent him home to rest after their assessment found him clinically stable. According to the report, during the attack Maphukatha screamed for help and two security guards, who were not present at the courtyard as they were supposed to have been at the time, came running and handcuffed the "aggressive" patient. The incident has thrust the Eastern Cape health department and several health unions back onto a collision course over the dangers that psychiatric patients pose to hospital workers. Unions have long told the department that nurses were not trained to handle psychotic patients and the security measures in place were lax. This was not the first incident at the hospital. A soldier being held for observation stabbed and wounded a patient at the hospital in March 2021.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Malibongwe Dayimani at News24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page