Home | News | PATIENTS AT RISK AS NURSES NOW USE FLASHLIGHTS

PATIENTS AT RISK AS NURSES NOW USE FLASHLIGHTS

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font


MBABANE – “Sorry we can’t help you!” Mbabane Government Hospital has become synonymous with this statement in recent weeks.


Nurses found at the Out Patient Department (OPD) during a blackout last week Friday said they had to turn back patients as the hospital experienced power outages exceeding two hours on both days.


The outages happened last Thursday and Friday evening at about 5:30pm.
According to the nurses, during blackouts, the alternative source of power, which is a generator usually, comes in handy but did not this time around.


It was rendered useless as it was without fuel.
One of the nurses said they had to tell those who had come to seek medical attention to ‘go back’ as they could not assist them.


ailments


The nurse said they are forced to advise the patients to seek alternative places where they could be assisted with their ailments as it was impossible to assist them in the dark.


Seeing the desperation in some patients, the nurse said they at times take the risk and use the flashlights on their mobile phones’, which, however, tend to run out of power.


When this happens, patients are turned back.
“Using the flashlights of the mobile phones is actually dangerous as we are unable to get proper lighting and this could result in lawsuits later on as some patients may suffer complications.”


These complications, according to the nurses, could emanate from the fact that the patient may be injected at a wrong spot.
Further, they said using the flashlights compromised their security as they also place themselves at risk of contracting HIV.


intense


And this is not the only challenge they are faced with as another nurse explained how a woman almost gave birth in the dark as her labour pains were intense.
“It was sheer luck that the electricity returned at that moment.”


President of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union, Bheki Mamba, said their members at the hospital had reported that they were working under trying conditions.


According to Mamba, the fuel shortage for the generator was an addition to a long list of issues they had raised in recent months.
“We had a General Council meeting yesterday (Thursday) where our members raised issues that include lack of drugs, fuel and water in health institutions.”


He said these challenges thwarted their efforts as nurses to administer necessary health services.
He further noted that these issues were not new as they had been discussed several times by his organisation and government.


According to Mamba, the demands that were presented to government were not addressed but instead the issues had multiplied as government continuously claimed to be broke.


flooding


The unionist said patients who were being treated in South Africa were allegedly back in the country and flooding local hospitals. However, due to lack of medication, he said there was little they could do to assist them.


“It’s funny how government personnel are always abroad on international trips while the basic services that are supposed to be headed by them are in dire straits due to lack of service”


Rhetorically, he further asked what was expected of nurses to do if a health institution was without a basic human necessity like water.
This, he said, meant that basic utensils used within health facilities could not be washed and rinsed.


With the issue of fuel, Mamba noted that the basic guide set by the World Health Organisation was that health institutions had to have back up facilities that automatically went onto supply power when there are electrical power failures.
He then wondered how such infrastructure could work if the fuel needed was not availed.

Comments (0 posted):

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: