Siyabonga Sithole
Nurses and other staff members of Leratong Hospital in the west rand have accused management of not doing enough to protect them against a litany of issues at the hospital.
Among the issues raised by these employees is the theft of cars and other belongings due to unsafe parking space at the hospital, shortage of staff and inadequate medical equipment and stationery supplies .
Staff members also indicate that the hospital does not have photocopy machines, which results in hand-written and makeshift filling in of forms which do not stand legal requirements.
Security is said to be inadequate for the hospital of this size thus unable to adequately deal with criminal activities happening right before their eyes. Others allege that nurses are forced to park their cars far from where they work which in turn leaves their cars and other belongings in the hands of criminal elements operating within the premises of the hospital.
Speaking to The Star on condition of anonymity at least four employees of the hospital complained about shortage of staff which affects productivity and increases their risk of burnout and stress.
“There is a big shortage of staff around here. We are supposed to be 16 on the shift, 11 of the original shift plus five overtime staff. But most of the time, this is not possible as there are not enough nurses and administrative clerks. So people are no longer interested in doing overtime because of the workload and 'some of the benefits to overtime staff are not enough. So basically we are working on skeleton staff and this affects us badly as we are constantly overworked and over-stretched.
This member of the trauma unit also indicated that the hospital has added more administrative work on top of an already overburdened workforce.
“They added more admin work. Adding to our workload, we could be doing more clinical work instead of writing matron reports. You are forced to also be a shift leader that's supposed to be doing admin but you are attending to the most sick and emergency patients.
Other issues pointed out by more than one member of staff is that the hospital is looking to dispense medication to patients without the hospital having a dispensing certificate. “They want us to dispense medication to discharged patients whereas we do not have dispensing certificates,” a staff member said.
Yet another employee raised similar concerns : “We are complaining of shortage of staff and believe that the management has no plan at all to cover nurses/patient ratio. We are always tired because we are overworked, we don't have a copy machine in casualty so most of the time we don't have paperwork, we are expected to make copies for ourselves by means of internet cafe.
Staff parking is so far and our cars are not even safe as there are already few cars stolen from the premises. We don't have a clerk to help with admin work and answer calls, we are writing on blank papers as we don't have copy machines which is illegal,” a second employee told The Star
Another member of the hospital staff indicated that the hospital cares less about nurses and more about doctors saying nurses are blamed for everything while doctors are protected by the hospital management.
“As nurses we are always blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong at the hospital. We are treated like second class citizens as nurses which is really not fair. We are always scared because management does not seem to take our issues seriously.
When we ask for training, we are not heard and if we take ourselves for training they do not recognize it. Whatever contribution we make as nursing stuff is not appreciated. Even our cars are not safe and then security guards do not seem to care,” this member of staff said.
The employee added that on top of everything, the hospital does not have a catchment area; they accept patients and there is always a shortage of equipment and stationery.
These issues came just when the Democratic Alliance issued a statement lamenting the Gauteng department of Health’s failure in spending over R2 billion from their department's allocated budget.
According to the DA, the provincial department failed to spend R1.6 billion of its conditional grant money due to non filing of posts while by March 2022, the department had only paid only 24% of their suppliers within the required 30 day period.
It is also alleged that 480 million earmarked for infrastructure development was not spent by the department resulting in occupational health and safety refurbishment not being done at Leratong, Sebokeng, Weskoppies and Jubilee Hospitals, the report by the DA says.
Gauteng department of health spokesperson, Kwara Kekana acknowledged some of the issues raised by this newspaper and how they affect employees of the Leratong Hospital, saying the office if the MEC and the department is aware of staff shortages at the hospital.
“The department is functioning with the staff establishment of 2006. Shortage of nurses especially is a global phenomenon. The staff establishment has not been adjusted to address the changes in the new health care system. As a regional hospital, Leratong has received a very minimal budget and posts for Covid-19 therefore do not have adequate staff to manage the pandemic in terms of human resources despite having systems in place,” Kekana said.
Kekana further admitted that the hospital has experienced security issues resulting in a reported car theft on the premises of the hospital and said the hospital has put measures in place to address security breaches at the hospital. On the issue of photocopy machines, Kekana said the hospital has photocopy machines but some of them have been taken in for repairs and maintenance.
“ Photocopy machines are available however, not fully operational due to required repairs and maintenance. Parts have been ordered and we are still awaiting delivery... Leratong Hospital procure its stationery from the government printers and they too have their own challenges. The institution has been in contact with government printers regarding these challenges,” he said.
However, the department has disputed problems associated with dispensing of medicines saying the hospital has a fully fledged pharmacy which is licensed to fulfill its requirement to its outpatients.
“ The hospital has a full time pharmacy that has a dispensing certificate for the hospital. Our pharmacy dispenses medication for all its outpatients despite staff shortage, the pharmacy operates on extended hours and is open seven days a week,” Kekana added.