LABOUR PAINS
Maternity unit evacuated as striking nurses stop doctors from helping pregnant women
The centre for specialist care for mothers and babies at Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay was shut down on Thursday and patients were evacuated to other hospitals after nurses embarked on a violent unprotected strike.
The head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Nelson Mandela Bay’s Dora Nginza Hospital, Dr Mfundo Mabenge, was held hostage and prevented from admitting pregnant women in distress as nurses at the facility protested about their working conditions.
It is understood that the police had to escort him out of the hospital complex.
Doctors, who asked to remain anonymous because they fear retribution from the Department of Health, said they were sickened by the abuse that their pregnant patients had to suffer at the hands of the striking nurses. “How can you chase these sick patients away and not admit them?”
“I haven’t slept since Monday,” one doctor said as they evacuated themselves and their patients to Livingstone Hospital.
Dr Mfundo Mabenge at the Dora Nginza Hospital in Port Elizabeth.( Photo: Theo Jeptha)
In video material of the violent confrontation between Mabenge and the nursing staff, he can be heard crying and pleading for them to help patients.
Read in Daily Maverick: “Nelson Mandela Bay state hospitals face collapse – doctors resign on ‘unprecedented’ scale”
Warnings of major crisis
In correspondence seen by Maverick Citizen, doctors have warned since July 2021 that there was a major crisis brewing in the obstetrics department because of dire staff shortages.
The maternal mortality rate and neonatal stillbirth rates have also been rising.
At the time, the waiting period for an elective C-section was 11 days and 8-10 hours for an emergency C-section. An overworked team of obstetricians was performing between 25 and 30 emergency C-sections a day. The Department of Health ascribed these delays to a 31% increase in the birth rate at the facility from 2016/2017.
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On Thursday, patients had to be moved to another hospital and theatres hastily prepared after they were prevented from receiving care at Dora Nginza Hospital, which is the centre for maternal and paediatric care for the western part of the Eastern Cape.
Eastern Cape Department of Health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda confirmed that a contingency plan had to be activated to “decongest” the hospital of patients, with emergency cases being referred to Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital.
“With immediate effect, eight beds have been prepared at Port Elizabeth’s Provincial Hospital, with additional beds that will be made available on demand. The theatre at the hospital was prepared to be put in use from 7pm.”
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Medical staff drafted in
Doctors and nurses from across the district had to be called in to provide anaesthetics, obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics, neonatology, nursing and non-clinical support services.
“The designated ward and theatre had been staffed and equipped with the relevant recruitment and medication,” Dekeda said. The provincial ambulance service was helping to transfer patients to other hospitals.
Dekeda said the strike was unprotected and the nurses were refusing to engage with senior management or return to work.
“The department takes this very seriously and the administrative and legal remedies at our disposal are being deployed,” she said.
“While it is claimed that this action arises out of concern for communities and patients, the current action clearly does not demonstrate concern for the wellbeing of those we have pledged to serve.” DM/MC
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Shocking, but because of total inaction by those in positions of power (who ignored all the warning clarion calls), this is what happens now, callous behaviour just to get attention, as wrong as it is. Birth rates up by 30% and Staffing up by ….? It must soul destroying trying to keep up with this demand in a dysfunctional system day in and day out.
31% increase in birth rate of future ANC voters and so the whole cycle repeats itself. I bet most of the nurses and the patients are majority ANC supporters. Both victims of the very ANC they voted for and will continue to vote for. This is the true irony.
These will be EFF supporters – no conscience just greed!
Indeed!
Notwithstanding the plight of understaffed medical units, it is abhorrent for a medical practice, at whatever level, to prevent medical care to a patient, and more especially a pregnant lady and her infant child.
It all boils down to the fact that the ANC Government is incapable of providing proper facilities and services to citizens. And they think NHI will solve it. IDIOTS!
Violence is the default position in South Africa.
This has nothing to do with administration – it has everything to do with the ethics of the nursing staff. It is rare to find nursing professionals who dedicate their lives to helping others, who genuinely care for their patients. In South Africa, nursing is now a job, not a calling. These nurses are not “nurses” – they are workers. Patients are objects, not humans in need of care. Disgraceful.
A hard-handed firing of disgraceful administrators and workers like these should be enforced to make space for those called to be compassionate managers and nurses. But then the hospitals will burn won’t it?
This is the sour fruit of entitlement and cadre deployment. Working for money that can never satisfy instead of from a calling that will always satisfy.
Oh absolutely.
This is the very essence of the problem- well said.
Only a union could imagine that striking nurses would fix a broken staffing system. It’s down to management again – somewhere in the mix, you’ll find cadre deployment.
A complicated situation. Hospital management should have ensured that such a situation did not occur. There are a number of steps they could have taken. However, the actions of the nursing staff are unethical and criminal. They should be charged with endangerment and if found guilty, be permanently removed from the nursing register. Where was NEHAWU in this?
Probably right in the middle.
Or leading from the front.
I spent a long time in hospital and must say that many of my nurses were quite openly looking for other jobs and opportunities. They candidly said that it was just a job for them and would do anything else if the money was better! Simply put, nursing/medical is a vocation! A calling! Not for many any more! Welcome to reality! Despicable!!!
A nurse who stops medical attention is not a nurse
Reading this today, my gratitude for so many things about my life has been badly diminished. I feel we are losing our humanity. I also feel for the nurses who think that their only recourse is violence. I hope they are reflecting on their actions.
Desperation can drive one to extremes. As unthinkable as it might be to us sitting on the sidelines! A beg for further investigation and a balanced review of the circumstances, not only at Dora Nginza, but the EC-public health disaster zone! Read the excellent articles about what happened at Zithulele hospital. Lets applaud the nurses out there that give of themselves despite the circumstances!
The chickens are coming home to roost
Affirmative action, the ANC policy of cadre deployment and BEE led to a deviation from the principle of employing the best person for the job to employing unqualified people at ALL levels of public service from National Level to Provincial Level to Metro Level. Nothing has been spared, not education, not security, not healthcare, not electricity supply, water supply, sanitation, roads….. the list goes on.
The ANC has broken everything it touches. No success stories for the average citizen. Lots of fortune for the BEE and BBBEE tenderpreneurs.
The funny thing is that the average ANC voter cannot recognise the decay for what it is and somehow cannot link the poor service delivery to the poor quality of people employed to provide good service levels. Like a computer, my teacher used to say, garbage in = garbage out.
Well said. Sad, but true.
This is what it takes for the ANC to be kicked into motion. The Unions are useless because they play politics. It is a sad necessity for survival. I have a lot of empathy for those nurses and doctors who are worked to the bone. Unlike other government departments like home affairs or the courts or…..
Welcome to Africa and the New South Africa. This is how things are done here.
“they fear retribution from the Department of Health,” isn’t that a disgusting statement we have to read. Those fat cats in government departments are just too revolting.