ERIC MATOME KGOMO
Dennilton: Staff members at Philadelphia Hospital in Dennilton carried out an unprotected strike on Wednesday 10 March, complaining about maladministration and poor working conditions.
During the strike, hundreds of employees abandoned their duties and picketed outside the hospital premises calling for the resignation of senior management including the CEO, Risk Manager and Clinical Manager.
Only a few staff members remained in the hospital to attend emergencies and very sick patients. Among other grievances, the staff was complaining about shortage of staff, shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), shortage of medication and non-payment of overtime duties.
The strike affected various areas of the hospital services including multidisciplinary team’s morning visit to patients and incapacitating the health facility’s operations in many ways.
“We are driven to do this by the hospital management. We downed tools because we demand better working conditions,” said one of the staff members who did not want to be named.
She described the hospital situation as dire as a result of maladministration. “The CEO is incapable to run the hospital properly. The hospital has a serious shortage of staff and currently operating with only 40% of the actual employee capacity, forcing nurses to perform duties that are supposed to be carried out by general workers. Just imagine nurses start by cleaning in the wards before they can attend to patients, this is pathetic,” she said.
She said things won’t be better unless the hospital CEO, Matome Lebea vacate the office. “We have tried to talk to him (Lebea) about the conditions but he is always rude and ignorant. He is incompetent, we need him to go along with the clinical and risk managers. Things will be better under the new management,” she said.
She vowed that they will not return to their duties as long as Lebea is still CEO of the hospital.
Mpumalanga Party Spokesperson, Fana Masinga, said the political organization is in full support of the striking workers.
“We support them because their complaints are genuine and the poor service at the hospital affect our communities,” he said.
Masinga said engagements with the management bore no fruits as the CEO was always not available when called to the meeting.
“This institution render essential service and we will not allow it to be mismanaged in any way because it affect residents badly. It is worrisome to see the hospital being in shortage of medication urging the poor to consult private doctors or ending up spending their last money on medication. We demand proper management to run the hospital,” he said.
Limpopo Health Department Spokesperson Neil Shikwambana, described what was happening at Philadelphia Hospital as hooliganism.
“You cannot have a situation where workers blocking their fellow workers who want to work and also refusing patients to receive healthcare service saying they are embarking on a strike,” said Shikwambana.
He said protests in this country are governed by laws and key among those is that they should not impede on the rights of others.
“Whatever concerns that these employees might be having, we have forums wherein employees raise their concerns about any matter affecting the hospital,” Shikwambana said.
He said they cannot allow anyone to render the hospital ungovernable because they are infringing on the rights of other people to access healthcare services.
