Pretoria - The South African Medical Association (Sama) said it is “gravely concerned” about the reports of another attack on a healthcare worker at a public hospital in Mpumalanga.
“On Tuesday night, a doctor at the Mapulaneng Hospital in Mpumalanga was attacked while on her way to the doctors’ residential quarters after her shift. She was hijacked, robbed at gunpoint, and the perpetrators attempted to rape her,” said Sama’s spokesperson, Dr Simonia Magardie.
“The doctor is, rightly, extremely traumatised by this experience.”
The Mpumalanga attack follows the brutal killing of a nursing assistant at the Tembisa Hospital earlier this month.
Lebo Monene, aged 30, was allegedly gunned down by her partner, a police officer, in the hospital's parking lot on Wednesday last week. The assailant turned the gun on himself, attempting suicide, and was taken to hospital in a critical condition.
“Sama is concerned that doctors working in public sector hospitals living and working in constant fear and in general feel unsafe within their working environments. Sama has on many occasions in the past raised concerns regarding the issue of safety at public hospitals,” said Magardie.
“The association has proposed that stringent security measures be implemented for the protection of healthcare workers and patients in dire need of medical services.”
She said the association is taking the issue of safety and security seriously and urges all stakeholders to collectively acknowledge the extreme level of the problem and find solutions in the interests of everyone in the country.
IOL