Home | News | NURSES LET PATIENTS OUT AT PSYCHIATRIC CENTRE

NURSES LET PATIENTS OUT AT PSYCHIATRIC CENTRE

11/02/2020 01:37:00 BY KWANELE SIBIYA

Font size:

MANZINI – Drama unfolded yesterday at the National Psychiatric Hospital as nurs- es let patients out after com- plaining about unfavourable working conditions.

This comes after a majority of toilets within the facility were reportedly non-functional due to a blockage which was allegedly caused by over- crowding. The blockage has been there for several months.

The National Psychiatric Hospital is located at Two Sticks in Manzini. According to Secretary of Shop Stewards at National Public Service and Allied Workers Union (NAP- SWU) Bongiwe Dlamini, who also happens to be a nurse at the hospi- tal, the bone of contention was the blockage in most of the toilets within the facility, which was a result of overcrowding. Information gathered from Dlamini was that the wards, which in reality are meant to hold a capacity of 45 patients, now hold approximately 105 patients. She said due to the over- crowding, as well the blockage of the toilets, patients were also vulnerable to contagious diseases. She pointed out that as nurses, they attempted to raise the matter with management but they (management) turned a deaf ear on the issue and, as a result, they resolved to let the patients loose to relieve themselves at a turn

nearby bush situated adjacent to the mental health facility. “We decided to let the patients loose so that they could relieve themselves at a nearby bush and whether they come back or not, it is none of our business,” she said. She mentioned that they were under the impression that maybe by so do- ing, management would up its game and address the issue effectively and immediately. Dlamini said in the meantime, they also came up with a resolution as staff members to down tools and picket within the premises of the institution while some of them went to the Ministry of Health to voice out
their grievances.

This, she said, was because the situation at the hospital was unbearable since it could result in both the patients and the staff mem- bers being vulnerable to hazardous health implications. Complaining “A majority of patients have already started complaining about diverse ailments due to the hazardous envi- ronment they are exposed to at the hospital,” she said. It is worth noting that a majority of the patients reportedly did not return to the hospital after they were released by the nurses. Dr Vusi Magagula, the Ministry of Health’s Director of Health, said he
was privy to details concerning the issues at the facility and that the nurses decided to release the patients. He said he paid a visit to the Na- tional Psychiatric Hospital to hear the concerns of the nurses. He mentioned that thereafter, they assessed the situation and discovered that only one ward was affected by the issue of blocked toilets and the others were functioning normally. He said they reached a resolution with his team to report to the hospital first thing this morning to fix the dysfunctional toilets

. “By tomorrow (today), everything will be back to normal as my team is collaborating with the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to fix the toilets first thing tomorrow morning,” he said. When responding directly regarding the issue of patients being released from the facility, Magagula said management had their own strategy of recapturing the patients.

He said some of the patients had already been safely returned to the facility though he was not sure of the exact figures. Meanwhile, unrests at the facility are not a new thing. It was reported over a year ago that a group of violent patients at the National Psychiatric Referral Hospital incited a riot by setting alight their sleeping mattresses and about 30 of them escaped when guards opened the gate to attend to the protest. The protest was organised after the institu- tion banned patients from smoking and they wanted the ban to be lifted.

Protested The rowdy patients protested and broke the main gate of the hospital and escaped. At the time, it was reported that some of the patients at Ward Four threw their sleeping mattresses outside and set them alight. A source at the time said the flames, accom- panied by dark clouds of smoke, together with the noise of the rioting patients, attracted the attention of the guards and nurses who were on duty. “When they opened one of the gates to the ward, the rebellious patients threw themselves onto them, pushed them out of the way and ran towards the institution’s main gate,” the source said. He said when they were towards the main gate, they clashed with the security guards who were stationed at the entrance and they opted to jump over the about 2.5 metres fence

with razor wire on top. The patients, who were on a rampage, are said to have left a trail of destruction at the hospital as an undisclosed number of sleeping mattresses, among other things, were reduced to ashes. On another note, the nurses at the facility once threatened to open all the gates and let patients discharge themselves. This was during a presentation of their petition by their union, the Swaziland Dem- ocratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), to former Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service Evart Madlopha.

The over 500 nurses flooded the Mba- bane streets to petition government over its failure to address them on the issue of cost-of-living adjustment (CoLA). As the President of the union, Bheki Mamba, was handing over the petition to Madlopha, some of the nurses said: “We’ll release patients at the psychiatric hospital if govern- ment does not engage us on our grievances.”

The nurses said this was to be the next step for them following that they were now living in fear of the patients at the psychiatric hospital. They said some of their patients had be- come violent as there was no medication to calm them down. On this, the nurses’ president said open- ing the gates and letting the patients loose was the only solution left for his cadre as the lack of medication had made the patients violent and a danger to them- selves, other patients and the nurses. “Without the medication, newly admitted patients become extremely violent. They become violent towards the nurses and the other patients,” they said.