Service blamed on morale of nurses
Low morale among nurses was often to blame for poor service rendered at public healthcare facilities and the lack of professionalism by workers, acting health department district manager Sindiswa Gede said on Wednesday.
She was speaking at the start of a two-day summit of nurses and pharmacists at the Lilitha nursing college, Central.
The purpose of the summit was to improve health systems, professionalism, ethics and practice by employees at public healthcare facilities, which the department said were the building blocks of the national health insurance (NHI) scheme.
“The standards are going down, hence we felt it was time to boost the morale of the staff and to create a platform for engagement,” Gede said.
“It is a chance for the nurses to voice how they feel and how we can, together, improve standards and services in the Nelson Mandela Bay district.”
Gede admitted that staff were often frustrated by the turnaround time in dealing with their complaints.
“It has led to some of the protests we have seen in the past,” she said.
“We, as management, we said, ‘let us look at the causes.
“Do the nurses still know what their role is in the health system, and, are we not as management frustrating them by maybe not ensuring that complaints are attended to as quickly as possible?
“We looked at, for example, infrastructure issues, that if there are windows that need to be replaced or plumbing that needs to be done, we have a quick-response team in place.”
Another sore point among nurses was their safety at certain clinics in the Bay, Gede said.
At a safety and security indaba in November, clinics in Helenvale, Kwazakhele and Soweto-on-Sea were singled out as among those where nurses worked in fear.
“In certain areas we still work in fear,” Gede said.
“That is why we once again call on the communities to assist because they also have a responsibility in ensuring that our nurses are protected and that the infrastructure at facilities is not stolen or vandalised.
“We have also ensured that our nurses and staff are getting debriefing support from psychologists via our employee support programmes.”
The Helenvale clinic was still shut, but her department was engaging with role-players “because we want to eventually reopen the clinic”.
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