We are not disposable, say health-care workers

The Nasrec field hospital in Joburg opened in June 2020 and was shut down in February 2021. Picture: DINO LLOYD/GALLO IMAGES

General secretary Lerato Mthunzi says Ynitu is demanding “an end to the austerity measures which are crippling our health-care system and worsening conditions for the working class and the poor who depend on these services … The government’s senseless decision to implement cutbacks during a pandemic is choking our health-care system.”

“In the beginning, we were scared. We had no idea what Covid was then, but because it’s our job to be nurses, we did go to Nasrec, we did nurse those patients and we worked until Nasrec closed last year.” “We will continue fighting until they take us back. This is not fair. Remember when Covid started, they were calling us heroes, but now they are throwing us away just like that.”

“Go to any township — Katlehong, Krugersdorp, Soweto, Mamelodi — and many community members will tell you about treatment in our facilities. It’s a known secret that the department of health Gauteng is a complete mess.”Sicina says all the union is asking is that the government employ nurses.

Mthunzi also wants the government to change how it deals with nurses’ education and placement. “The department trains the community service nurses but doesn’t employ them. So the purpose of training these health-care workers is because the government needs them in the system, but when they must be employed, the department claims that it does not have vacant funded posts,” she says.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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