Staff who are refusing to work after hours at the Laetitia Bam day hospital because they fear for their lives have been given an ultimatum to either return to full-time duty or face disciplinary action.
The clinic, normally open for 24 hours a day, was closed for after-hours shifts last week after security guards were tied up and robbed.
It was the latest in a series of violent crimes at the facility.
Some of the stolen goods were recovered.
Other recent incidents included a doctor being beaten up and an armed gang barging into the facility to “finish off” one of its victims who was seeking help for a broken arm.
Clinic staff said they feared for their lives and demanded that a functioning 24-hour security system with working panic buttons be implemented before they re-opened the facility at night.
The panic buttons they have been issued with do not go through to an armed security service but only to the guardhouse at the facility.
Treatment Action Campaign Eastern Cape deputy chair Thembisile Nogampula said despite discussions on Monday, the maternity unit and the trauma unit remained closed at night.
Patients were referred to Uitenhage Provincial Hospital.
He said that the TAC had not received a response to concerns it had raised with the department. “We had a meeting today with the clinic committee, the facility management and [union] Nehawu,” he said.
“Our general secretary, Anele Yawa, called them but there was no response.”
Nogampula said TAC members would go to the department’s district office in Conyngham Road on Tuesday morning.
“They will see us coming. We want answers,” he said.
Nehawu’s shop steward for the facility, Mxolisi Muleka, confirmed that workers had received an ultimatum to return to work at night immediately.
“They want us to come back and work at night but they haven’t done anything that they promised to do to make it safer,” he said.
He said staff who worked at night were often young women who were particularly vulnerable to criminals.
He said he had received documentation on Monday giving workers an ultimatum to either return to work or face disciplinary measures with notice that they would not be receiving their full salaries.
Clinic committee chair Lakhe Kona said outside lights at the clinic that were no longer working made the facility extremely dark at night.
Health department spokesman Lwandile Sicwetsha confirmed last week that the department had started procurement processes for an alarm and CCTV cameras at the clinic.
He said the threat of disciplinary action was aimed only at night staff who had not been arriving at work.
A feedback meeting with the KwaNobuhle community and clinic personnel has been scheduled for Thursday.
Municipal spokesman Mthubanzi Mniki said the municipality would only be able to address community concerns over a lack of lighting and allegations of a lack of response by the metro police on Tuesday.