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NURSES SAY PATIENTS DYING, FAIL TO MEET PM

27/04/2022 08:38:00 Mthunzi Mdluli

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MBABANE – ‘‘Patients are dying due to the shortage of nurses. Please do something.”

This was a plea made by nurses who claimed that patients were dying in hospitals while giving birth due to the shortage of health workers in the country. This was revealed by members of the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) yesterday who were denied access to the Prime Minister (PM), Cleopas Dlamini, as he was reported to be busy and could not have a face-to-face engagement with them. The nurses had gone to the Cabinet Offices to deliver a petition demanding the employment of more nurses. The Acting Cabinet Principal Secretary, Nokuthula Stewart, welcomed the SWADNU representatives and informed them that she would receive their petition on behalf of the PM because he was attending meetings at Cabinet yesterday. However, this seemingly did not go down well with the nurses, who said their aim was to engage the PM as the situation was dire in hospitals. They said they had delivered many petitions to government; to the ministries of Health and Public Service, but not much had been done.

Closed

The nurses told the acting PS that there were no health workers in hospitals, which had led to some facilities like the Isolation Department at the Mbabane Government Hospital being closed. They also informed the acting PS that Zindwendweni, Lundzi and Bulandzeni clinics were not operating due to the shortage of health workers. The nurses said they tried on several occasions to engage the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi, the principal secretary in the ministry and the Ministry of Public Service to address the matter but their efforts were futile. They said it was because of that reason that they were demanding to meet the PM face-to-face other than delivering a written petition to him. When probed on the supposed deaths recorded in hospitals due to the shortage of nurses, SWADNU President Welcome Mdluli alleged that two women died at the Mbabane Government Hospital after giving birth recently. Mdluli alleged that the women died due to excessive bleeding as no healthcare workers were present to monitor them.

Those present were supposedly overstretched as they assisted other patients. Mdluli did not wish to give specifications of the matter, save to say that the situation on the ground was dire.
He said about 410 healthcare workers’ contracts expired at the end of March 2022 and the nurses were then told through WhatsApp messages not to report for duty the next day. He said they were surprised because no formal or legal procedure was followed in this regard. Mdluli said they spoke to the minister about the issue and she ordered all those nurses to report to their various workstations, but they got no assistance. He said what was frustrating the most was that the permanent nurses were forced to do work which was not part of their specialisation, posing a danger to patients.

Mdluli further said apart from the nurses who were out of contract, there was also a shortage of another 205 due to retirement and death. He said every month they were losing health workers due to various reasons. The president said because of that, the country’s health sector was crumbling. He said a department like the Mbabane Government Hospital Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Monday had about 12 workers on duty and things changed yesterday as there were only nine workers who reported for duty as some had to take their days off. “The health sector is collapsing every day. As we speak, we have urged some of our colleagues, more especially from the Maternity Ward, not to go on leave in order to assist our mothers and sisters. If we say there are no nurses, we mean it but what can we say, after all nothing is being done?

Shortage

“There is no midwife who can assist five women at the same time to give birth accordingly. That is why you will find some women giving birth in corridors because of the shortage of nurses. I cannot even touch on the medication side as it is now regarded as public knowledge,” said Mdluli. When Mdluli was asked as to how many healthcare workers they would like the Ministry of Health to hire, he said 500 as a start would be better. He said that would minimise the workload on the nurses and other healthcare workers. The acting PS said the SWADNU representatives, who were about 20 in number, had to make an appointment for another day to see the PM. At first, the representatives said this was not what they wanted, especially because they had delivered many petitions to various stakeholders, with no positive results. “Our coming here is a matter of life and death,” they informed the acting PS.
Stewart then asked the representatives what would happen if he (PM) concluded his meetings very late.

In response, the nurses’ representatives said they had no problem waiting for him even if he finished at 10pm. One nurse, who preferred to remain anonymous, said healthcare workers under normal circumstances were supposed to render services to at least 30 patients daily. He, however, said things had changed because of not having enough healthcare workers. He said they found themselves attending to over 70 patients a day, which was draining and causing them fatigue. He said it was possible for any health worker to be found working at the dispensary.

SWADNU further highlighted the dangers faced by other healthcare workers who tried to assist their colleagues in times of emergency. They argued that someone who specialised in the brain could not help a woman to give birth. They said they were afraid of being taken to court because of such. They also stated that the management could find itself guilty for doing work which was not part of their job description. Meanwhile, Minister Nkosi said the process of hiring health workers was still ongoing. She said even though the ministry was hiring, that did not mean that they would not be understaffed. She said interviews were currently ongoing. When the minister was asked about other clinics such as Zindwendweni, Lundzi and Bulandzeni, that were closed due to being understaffed, she said more than 10 facilities were affected due to COVID-19. She said because of that, they had to close some of them.

Facilities

“We have about six newly-built health facilities which are also in need of health workers. There is one that we have just finished at Nkomanzi. The exact number of staff needed was communicated on the ground level,” said Nkosi. When asked about the supposed deaths at the Mbabane Government Hospital as highlighted by SWADNU, the minister did not wish to comment on that. SWADNU was later on the day told to submit their petition in written form and then wait for the response from the Prime Minister’s Office in the form of an email. The SWADNU president told his colleagues to wait for the response from the PM and then decide on their next move. The representatives came from the four regions of the country. In the last update from government regarding the hiring of nurses, the ministry said they would hire 210 nurses with a budget of E70 million.