MEDICAL LAB TECHNICIANS DOWN TOOLS

MBABANE – Disastrous! This best describes the situation in the country as medical laboratory technicians, who play an integral role in the operations of the Mbabane Government Hospital, downed their tools.

Everything came to a standstill as over 60 medical lab technicians at the country’s major hospital, yesterday converged at the Blood Bank to deliver a list of demands to the Principal Laboratory Administrator, Stukkie Motsa.

In essence, with the technicians downing tools, it means there will be no coronavirus (COVID-19) tests conducted, among other things in the country. Other operations that will be affected include TB testing and treatment, viral load testing and blood sugar levels testing.

 Laboratory

This is because medical laboratory technologists and technicians analyse body fluids, such as blood, urine, tissue samples and record normal or abnormal findings.  They further discuss results and findings of laboratory tests and procedures with physicians.
Mbabane Government Hospital is currently the only hospital that analyses COVID-19 samples and others by virtue of being a referral hospital.

In an interview with this publication, the laboratory technicians, who are based at the COVID-19 laboratory, said processing of the results would definitely be affected. They mentioned that they were not prepared to go back to work unless their demands were met.  The technicians want to be provided with personal protective equipment (PPE), among other things.

They said they had risked their lives from the first day when the country recorded the first COVID-19 case to date. “We are tired of compromising our lives, especially because we directly work with the virus itself when handling the test samples for COVID-19,” they said. Meanwhile, they alleged the Ministry of Health was undermining them, hence their grievances were not addressed.

According to the technicians, they required proper and full PPE which included head covers, eye shields, masks, scrubs, disposable coats, aprons, shoe covers, sanitisers, soap and a sink. They want the employer to provide them with a safe working environment.

Meanwhile, the laboratory technicians said they wanted their employer to clearly state whether they were an essential service or not.
They noted that they wanted the issue of risk allowance to be addressed by their employer, adding that their work was undermined and they were not considered an essential service. Further, they noted that there was no treatment without laboratory results as doctors also needed to be informed by  same. “The laboratory is the heart of the hospital,” they said.

If their demands are not met, the technicians stated that they would be shutting down all the public laboratories in the country, which included the main labs and mini labs. There are currently about 97 laboratories and 267 technicians countrywide.

Demands

When sought for comment on the matter, Director of Health Services Dr Vusi Magagula said they received the demands and would address them accordingly. The director said they would make sure that the COVID-19 test samples continued to be run and were not affected by the technicians’ protest. He said senior managers would be the ones who would be responsible, while they tried to normalise the situation. “We are sure that the COVID-19 testing will not be affected for now,” said the director.

Magagula said the ministry discussed with laboratory supervisors on a way forward, adding that he was hoping that they would engage the technicians on their behalf and resolve the issue amicably.   

Meanwhile, President of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU), Bheki Mamba, said they supported the protest by the medical laboratory technicians. Mamba said this showed that things were not going well on government’s side. He said the country was far from winning the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. Already, he said there was a backlog of samples at the laboratory as the processing was slow due to a number of factors, including the unavailability of tests kits, among other things. 

“If the employees are on strike, it means the results will be delayed further. This also means that infected people will be spreading the virus by infecting others because their results would not have been issued.” Mamba said on several occasions, they had engaged government to take seriously and address the issue of PPE and risk allowance to motivate the health workers.

He said they were not suggesting that huge amounts be paid, but just simply appreciating the frontline workers, adding that when they raised the issues of PPE and risk allowance, they were seen as people who were troublesome.

Mamba said COVID-19 cases continued to rise and their contacts would not be able to be tested, resulting in them infecting many people. “This is a serious disaster for the country. Government should address the issue of health workers,” he said.

In March, nurses also downed tools to petition the ministry and Cabinet over PPE. This was shortly after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in the country, where the nurses threatened that they would not attend to any patients without protective gear.

Nurses noted that while the nation was worried about contracting the virus, they were equally troubled that they were being made what they termed as ‘sacrificial lambs’.
“There is no appropriate personal protective equipment for us. The equipment said to be available was stock left over for the 2008 H1N1 response,” reads part of the petition.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: