HLATIKULU – Dozens of nurses at the Hlatikulu Government Hospital walked off the job on Thursday in a dispute involving a nurse who was described as unqualified for the job.
The disgruntled nurses had been holding meetings separately at the Hlatikulu Government Hospital since a nurse who is still undergoing training, according to the protesters, was posted to a surgical theatre to perform duties normally assigned to fully qualified staffers.
However, management allegedly continued with assigning the affected nurse at the theatre, much to the anger of the disgruntled staff members.
Information reaching this publication indicated that the particular nurse was studying at a certain tertiary institution in South Africa, and is yet to be awarded his qualification upon fulfilment of the requirements stipulated by the institution.
The nurses at the public facility hold the view that the surgical theatre is a crucial component of the hospital, and as such believe that caution must be exercised when deploying staff to that department.
Ideally, the nurses said the affected staff member ought to have been sent to another public facility for practicals under strict supervision before working on his own at the theatre.
Therefore, as a way of showing their discontent, the nurses on Thursday embarked on a protest action or demonstration to voice their grievances against management, making the day the most disruptive in recent times for the Hlatikulu Government Hospital.
Witnesses said the protest action commenced as early as 8am when patients were still flocking in. This left the hordes who had gone to the facility for medical care stranded.
“It was such a huge inconvenience. We had to wait in slow moving queues as the nurses carried on with their protest,” lamented a disappointed patient.
The bad blood between management and the nurses is adding to the burden of the public health facility, which is one of many across the country that are still dogged by perpetual shortage of medicine and medical equipment.
This is the same facility that jogged headlines recently after a patient died, apparently after failing to get prescribed medicinal drugs.
Communications Officer in the ministry of health Nsindiso Tsabedze described the disruptive action by the nurses as illegal. He said, as far as the ministry was concerned, there is no unqualified personnel at the facility.
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