Durban - PATIENTS at King Edward VIII Hospital are in fear after a patient went on a stabbing spree and injured three people.
A patient at the hospital said the incident happened on Sunday at about 10pm.
She said she heard nurses screaming and running. The woman said a nurse, a patient and a security guard had been injured by the man.
“This has left me traumatised. If nurses are scared and run away, who are we as patients to be left with no one to care for us?” the woman asked.
She asked how it was possible for the patient to have been in possession of a knife.
Last month, the Daily News’ sister paper, the Sunday Tribune, reported that two men walked into Clairwood Hospital during visiting hours and shot a patient dead.
Mandla Shabangu, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) provincial secretary, said security at hospitals was a long-running issue.
He said they would start advocating for their members to come to work armed to protect themselves.
Shabangu said they would also seek legal opinion on how to take the department to court for failing to protect its workers.
Shabangu said: “It is over a decade since Denosa has been complaining about security in health facilities, and contracts of security companies get renewed and new ones get contracts and yet the results are the same.”
Ncamisile Nkwanyana, the IFP provincial spokesperson on health, suspected the guards were not well trained or equipped to deal with such incidents. The department needed to address these issues, she said.
Dr Rishigen Viranna, the DA spokesperson on health, said the violence at hospitals was “horrific” and the department should find a solution to the security problem.