The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in KwaZulu-Natal wishes to express it’s full support of decision to impose stricter lockdown rules in the eThekwini District as COVID-19 is spreading rapidly and uncontrollably in the district, and we call for hiring of more nursing staff to embark on mass testing.
DENOSA is concerned that we do not have enough workforce to combat the spread as KZN has not employed any new employees since the announcement by the president.
We are further concerned about the infection rate on healthcare workers, both in private and public sectors, and we call for an intense investigation on what is it that as a province we are not doing right. Is it the unavailability of PPE or lack of capacitation on the usage thereof?
“We are concerned that we might not have enough space to cater both workers and public members who need to be quarantined in our province,” says DENOSA KZN Provincial Secretary, Mandla Shabangu.
“And this will further strain human resources that is already depleted because if more patients are on isolation in facilities, their admission demands the care from the already existant human resource that must now be focusing on the new COVID-19 wards, because as we speak there is no new health care personnel employed because they are taking from the current staff to nurse these patients while the normal activities in a hospital or clinics is still continuing as normal.”
We support this plan to intensify the testing and screening but we really need an urgent human resources plan otherwise our health care system is going to collapse due to overworked of health workers. While the focus is on COVID-19 what will happen to normal patients where there was shortage already?
At least the province has a list of more than 10 000 qualified nurses who are sitting at home and looking for work. And the Department can attest to this.
As DENOSA KZN, we are scared that these good plans might not bear expected good results if KZN Department of Health is not supported financially by national Department of Health.
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Issued by DENOSA in KwaZulu-Natal
For more information, contact:
Mandla Shabangu, DENOSA Provincial Secretary
Cell: 0716433369