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News24 reports that the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw) has called out Dr Rolene Wagner, the superintendent of the Eastern Cape Department of Health, for her "inability to do something" about staff shortages and closures of health facilities in the province.
Nupsaw members and residents took to the streets of Nelson Mandela Bay on Monday, picketing outside Motherwell NU8 Clinic, which is struggling to operate with only two registered nurses servicing hundreds of patients a day. According to Mzikazi Nkata, the union's provincial secretary, this facility is supposed to have nine registered nurses and two pharmacy assistants. However, only two nurses must bear the brunt of an influx of ill residents in the metro's largest township, and there are no pharmacy assistants. "The clinic is unable to run effectively due to the staff shortage. This is a matter of life and death, and we need Dr Wagner to wake up and smell the coffee because what is happening here is so wrong," Nkata said. She said most nurses at the clinic resigned in July last year, and while some of them reached retirement age, others left because of the two-pot system. To make matters worse, Joe Slovo Clinic and Max Madlingozi Clinic, also in the Bay, have been closed since last year due to rampant crime. Department spokesperson Mkhululi Ndamase said they were committed to filling vacancies "within the available envelope" and had explained to staff and union leaders that it was currently impossible to fill all the vacancies because of budgetary constraints.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Candice Bezuidenhout at News24 (subscription or trial registration required)
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