Times Of Swaziland: PROTESTING NURSES ‘HIJACK’ MINISTER’S EVENT

PROTESTING NURSES ‘HIJACK’ MINISTER’S EVENT
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BY SITHEMBILE HLATSHWAYO on 11/11/2021 08:42:00


MBABANE – After petitioning government without receiving any responses, nurses
at the Mbabane Government Hospital ‘hijacked’ the Minister of Health, Lizzie
Nkosi’s mission to commission a neonatal intensive care unit to raise their
concerns.
To make their presence felt, the nurses assembled next to the referral new wing
where they sang struggle songs, just as the minister’s event to deliver
speeches began. Nkosi and her delegates, who included the British High
Commissioner, Simon Boyden, and the UNICEF Representative, Amina Mohammed,
started at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) where they observed the
donated equipment worth E6 million.
Equipment
The equipment includes radiant warmers, incubators, blood gas machine,
therapeutic cooling machine, ventilators, infusion pumps, mobile X-ray, monitors
and phototherapy lamps. As speeches continued at the newly-constructed Referral
and Emergency Complex, nurses staged a protest behind the building where they
sang struggle songs, protesting over drug shortages and food supplies. However,
they stopped singing as they were called to order and reminded about the
government procedures whenever they wanted to send grievances to the minister.
The health workers stopped singing and waited for Nkosi to finish with the
event. Immediately after minister Nkosi had finished with the neonatal
commissioning event, she went straight to the protesting nurses to listen to
their concerns.
Unsuccessfully
Addressing the minister, the Unit Committee Vice Secretary, Lindiwe Zwane, said
they had no working tools at the hospital yet it was a referral. Zwane said
after unsuccessfully petitioning the ministry, they decided to seize the
opportunity as they heard that the minister would be visiting the hospital. She
said the challenge was still food supplies for patients and drug shortages.
According to Zwane, they had received donated food parcels which were not
enough. She also mentioned that they were faced with fuel and transport
challenges, stating that the employees were forced to hire private cars after
knocking off late from work as there was no transport.
“We have run from pillar-to-post seeking assistance, but have not received any
feedback.” Zwane pointed out that another challenge was that of the abandoned
‘children’ who were living at the hospital yet it was not a residential
area. She pleaded with the minister to grant them permission as her ministry
failed to address the issue of the abandoned children to visit the Deputy Prime
Minister’s (DPM) Office on Monday to resolve the issue.
Furthermore, she stated that after visiting the DPM’s Office, they would go to
Parliament to seek the legislators to fast track health matters. Zwane said
health was an essential service that was being looked down upon, while other
service providers within government structures operated smoothly, including the
police.
Reiterating the vice secretary’s statement, Mfundo Mthethwa, who is the Deputy
Chairperson of the Mbabane Government Hospital Unit Committee, said by staging
the protest, they wanted the minister to notice them as they were seeking her
attention after delivering two petitions without getting a response.
“We will wait for her until she finishes the event as we desperately want her
to address us following the concerns that we have been directing to her office
through the petitions,” the deputy chairperson mentioned.
Concerned
He said as health workers and advocates, they were concerned about their
patients’ health status, which was their responsibility. According to
Mthethwa, they would not turn a blind eye while patients admitted to the
hospital starved. He stated that nutrition was paramount and was a basic need,
adding that nothing should stand in the way of patients’ diet. “You cannot
take away the basic need of a person who is already compromised,” Mthethwa
said. He said children who were malnourished were also admitted to the hospital
and by not getting the right diet, they were being pushed closer to death.
Concerns
Responding, Minister Nkosi said they were addressing the concerns of drug
shortages and food. She said concerning the drug shortages, it was not an issue
of budget, but it was beyond them as the country received a bulk of its
medicines from India. “We received a communiqué from the suppliers last year
to the effect that due to COVID-19, they had failed to secure some of the
ingredients and orders would be delayed.”
She said they eventually received the medication, but the gap was too much which
was why some facilities still experienced the shortages. Nkosi reminded the
nurses that there were procedures which had to be followed when sending
grievances and not the manner in which they had handled the issue to
‘hijack’ her event. The minister said she appreciated and acknowledged their
concerns either way as they were genuine.