Pretoria - Some nurses at Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville have been forced to do the work of HIV counsellors after the latter downed tools due to unpaid stipends.
To make the situation worse, the hospital’s chief executive Mothoagae Mogale was not aware that nurses have been burdened by the extra work that should be done by counsellors.
One of the nurses told the Pretoria News the hospital had 10 counsellors, who hadn’t been paid for three months. Only four have been reporting for work. She said nurses were now counselling people who come to hospital for HIV tests.
Counsellors are part of a non-governmental organisation which receives funding from the Department of Health.
Mogale said he would take up the issue with the relevant authorities and hoped it would be resolved soon.
This emerged on Wednesday during an unannounced visit by parliamentary committee members of public service administration. They also received a flurry of complaints from patients.
Committee chairman Peace Mabe listened to patients who raised issues like lengthy waiting times in queues and “negative attitudes of nurses and doctors”.
A teary 23-year-old Khutso Shai said she brought her mother to the hospital on Tuesday evening after she complained of breathing difficulties. Her mother was admitted at the casualty section.
She went back again on Wednesday to visit her mother and she claimed nurses had refused to give information about her mom’s condition. “One of the nurses made a remark that my mother would not survive,” said Shai.
Nurses were, however, able to update her about her mom’s condition after Mabe intervened.
Vikile Matosi, 26, of Atteridgeville, told the Pretoria News that she was treated badly by one doctor when she was admitted to the hospital in September last year for “heart failure”.
“One day I vomited in the ward and the doctor ordered me to clean up my mess,” she said. One day she was told that her patient file had gone missing from the hospital file storeroom.
Mogale said it was common for files of patients to go missing.
A wheelchair-bound Aubrey Bornman, 60, complained that doctors had refused to do blood tests on him to determine the cause of his swollen feet.
The skin is also peeling off.
The problem started 15 years ago after he injured himself at home. One of the nurses explained to him that tests were only done when doctors believed they were necessary.
But, it was not only patients who had complaints. Dr S Joubert-Bultman retired last year in December and had not received her provident fund after seven months.
Because she doesn’t have a monthly income, she had taken up part-time work at the hospital.
She works four hours a day and is paid per session.
At the end of the visit, Mabe told the Pretoria News her overall impression of the hospital was that it wasn’t doing badly, compared to other hospitals.
“I think that the hospital is well run. However, I would like the management to come up with programmes that would motivate the staff,” she said.
She said the visit was done to play the oversight role on public administration in different government service delivery points.
Committee members also sprung a surprise visit to Marabastad refugee reception offices, which are manned by the Home Affairs Department.
Centre manager Sibonelo Manana told them about the syndicate of police, community policing forums and security guards, which was soliciting bribes from foreign nationals there to apply for refugees’ documentation and asylum seeker papers.
He said there had been complaints of guards beating up foreign nationals for no apparent reason.
Public service commissioner Mike Seloane said: “The place needs service refurbishment of equipment, buildings and staff to change their attitude.”
Pretoria News