Durban - INKOSI Albert Luthuli Central Hospital healthcare workers downed tools on Thursday morning in protest of Covid-19 protocols at the hospital.
Staff held placards at the entrance to the hospital, delaying the movement of traffic into the hospital.
They sang, chanted and protested all the way up to the main building.
Their protest came at the same time as Nehawu president was conducting oversight visits to hospitals in the province.
Last week Thursday it was established that 42 healthcare workers had tested positive for the virus at the hospital.
INKOSI Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH) healthcare workers downed tools this morning in protest of Covid-19 protocols at the hospital. Staff held placards at the entrance to the hospital, delaying the movement of traffic into the hospital. Video: Thobeka Ngema.
This was according to the hospital CEO during an oversight visit by the KZN Legislature Portfolio Committee on Health.
It is alleged that more than 100 healthcare workers have tested positive for Covid-19 at the hospital.
On Thursday morning, Nehawu handed over a memorandum of demands, giving the hospital seven days to respond.
INKOSI Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH) healthcare workers downed tools this morning in protest of Covid-19 protocols at the hospital. Staff held placards at the entrance to the hospital, delaying the movement of traffic into the hospital. Video: Thobeka Ngema.
During an oversight visit by the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature Health Portfolio Committee to the hospital last week, Dr Thandeka Khanyile said one of their biggest challenges was that an increasing number of staff were calling in sick as the infection rate increased.
She said the growing number of staff being infected with Covid-19, had had a huge impact on the hospital’s ability to render services.
In her presentation to the committee, Khanyile said as of Wednesday, 42 staff had tested positive. Most of those infections had happened in the past two weeks.
INKOSI Albert Luthuli Central Hospital (IALCH) healthcare workers downed tools this morning in protest of Covid-19 protocols at the hospital. Staff held placards at the entrance to the hospital, delaying the movement of traffic into the hospital. Picture: Thobeka Ngema.
Khanyile said staff infected with the virus were either in quarantine at home or at government facilities.
For the months of May and June, the hospital had admitted 42 infected patients, seven of whom had died.
Khanyile said the trend was that immediately after a staff member tested positive, several workers from that unit would call in sick the next day.
Khanyile said if workers had not come into contact with a positive case, they were regarded as “no risk” as per the guideline.
Therefore, they should continue to work, she said.
“What we are seeing is that people are falling sick en masse in the hospital. On a day that someone tests positive, the rest of the team books off sick for up to four days.”