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 report on staffing issues that have led to doctors leaving the Livingstone Hospital in Gqeberha in droves is expected to be presented to senior officials in the Eastern Cape Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday.
According to medical practitioners at the hospital, the hospital’s departments – including internal medicine, surgery, anaesthetics, intensive care unit, and radiology – have lost at least 30% of their doctors in the past few years, and very few of them have been replaced. This led to the surgery department warning patients in a notice in May not to expect doctors at the hospital’s outpatient clinics due to a dire staff shortage. Provincial DOH spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo advised on Monday that a task team, led by a chief director, had been appointed to look at issues affecting staffing and medicine availability at Livingstone. He said: “That task team is hard at work and is expected to present a progress report [on Tuesday] morning.” Kupelo added that “significant progress” had been made since the establishment of the task team. The DA’s Jane Cowley said the facility’s staff outflow was no accident. “Burnout leads to resignations, which in turn fuel burnout, and the vicious circle accelerates. Those who remain shoulder an unbearable load while patients wait in fear and pain,” she explained. The crisis is compounded by an exodus of professional and enrolled nurses, whose dwindling numbers can no longer sustain safe care. Cowley said the DOH needed to act urgently to find solutions for staffing issues at the hospital.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sithandiwe Velaphi at News24 (subscription / trial registration required)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page