NURSES REFUSE TO OPERATE IN NEWLY-OPENED HOSPITAL WING

MBABANE – The adage that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers, rang true as nurses refused to treat patients at the Mbabane Government Hospital’s Gynaecology Department yesterday.

At least over 30 patients had anticipated getting treated on the day, some of whom came from as far as Manzini.
Bongekile Dlamini, who was experiencing labour pains, said she had been admitted to the maternity Ward on Monday. She said she was advised to see a doctor by the gynaecologist section nurses and had been waiting since 5:30am.

“I am very angry because we are not being told of what is happening. We have been made to pay but no one is attending to us,” she said. Simangele Maphosa, also a patient, said she had been referred from the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital and was disappointed that she would not receive treatment yet she had spent a lot of money in bus fare and also hospital bills. The doctor who was on duty reported for work but had to wait for over two hours before deciding to leave when nurses did not show up.

The refusal by the nurses to attend to patients follows the moving of the gynaecology department to the new Out Patient Department (OPD), which was recently commissioned by the Prime Minister Sibusiso Barnabas Dlamini.

The hospital authority has assigned nurses at the OPD to take over the Gynaecology Department and they were adamant that they would not attempt to see patients.

According to nurses who spoke on condition of anonymity, they argued that the staff that was working under the gynaecology unit should be attending to the patients while management continued to address the issue of staff shortages.

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