Cape Town - Once hailed as heroes during the brutal Covid-19 pandemic, Brackengate Intermediate Care Facility staff say they now feel like “nothing” as more than 200 staff members face termination of their contracts at the end of the month.
National Public Service Workers Union (NPSWU) members comprising of the facility’s nurses, physiotherapists, social workers, admin staff, cleaning staff, doctors and other specialists marched to the Western Cape Legislature on Monday, calling on the provincial Health and Wellness Department to extend the contracts, allowing staff to continue to provide this vital service to patients.
The temporary field hospital was commissioned at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic to provide extra beds for the healthcare system.
The 336-bed facility opened on July 1, 2020 and in June last year it was converted to a 128-bed transitional care facility.
Staff were informed at the end of February that their contracts would be terminated effective March 31, 2023.
A memorandum of demands handed to Head of Ministry Doug Newman called for the conversion of all fixed-term contracts to permanent contracts, and for the continuation of the Brackengate Intermediate Care Facility.
NPSWU provincial chairperson Zolisa Menze said 214 employees stand to be affected.
“What happened is that there was a changed management programme and what they did was actually seek to replace them with people from outside.”
Clinician Dr Mohammed Faried Abdullah joined in solidarity and said the facility takes an enormous load off emergency centre blockages and general wards of its referring hospitals.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, the hospital had 11 referring hospitals and the unit would see 60-70 patients a day.
Since the transition, they’ve been reduced to three referring hospitals – Tygerberg, Karl Bremer, and Eerste River. He said staff were used to working with such numbers, and have been providing transitional care for more than eight and a half months.
Last week, Metro Health Services decided that they would not continue any admissions and this was done without their prior knowledge, he said.
“We understand that sometimes not everyone can get a post but we are fighting for Brackengate staff to at least get preference for a post at Brackengate Hospital. At the moment, we feel that there have been unfair recruitment processes,” nurse Seymone Ramalaine said.
“If there are too many, there are many places to be redeployed within the Western Cape.”
During the pandemic and when the facility saw fewer Covid-19 patients, staff were redeployed to Karl Bremer, Khayelitsha and Eerste River hospitals.
“But at the moment they say they can’t do the same thing for us.”
She said the hospital wants to employ other staff and would only continue taking admissions on April 17.
Health and Wellness Department spokesperson Mark van der Heever said the department was currently consulting with staff and organised labour on the service and staffing plan.
“Once completed, we will complete the recruitment and selection processes needed for the new facility.”
Taking to social media, Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo said: “Covid-19 contract staff are/were mostly generalists. You will need to mix them with others, hence everyone must reapply when the contract ends.”