- The government went to court to stop the hospital strike after people claimed some sick patients died without medical care.
- Nurses and health workers stopped working because criminals broke into a local clinic six times and they wanted overtime pay.
Pregnant women in labour and sick patients were left without medical care during a strike at Dora Nginza Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay.
The strike caused chaos at the hospital. The health department had to bring in extra nurses and fly very sick patients to other hospitals.
Hospitals as far away as Midland Hospital in Graaf-Reinet were told to be ready to take patients.
People have claimed that some patients died because they did not get help. The department could not confirm if this is true.
Workers returned to their jobs on Monday morning.
Eastern Cape health official Dr Rolene Wagner went to the hospital to check that staff were back.
“I did rounds at Dora Nginza Hospital this morning to meet with the management teams to confirm that workers are back at work and that services are restored on both sides,” she said.
The problems started at the Motherwell Community Healthcare Centre. Staff stopped going to work on Wednesday after the clinic was broken into six times. They said they were not safe.
At the same time, workers at Dora Nginza Hospital went on strike. They wanted to be paid for overtime because they had to treat extra patients from closed clinics.
The government went to court to force the hospital staff to go back to work.
Mlungiseleli Ncapayi from the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union said they told their members to return.
He said they are talking to the government to fix the problems.
“We are deeply disappointed that the department has allowed things to reach this point whereby workers had to express their frustration through this manner,” he said.
Pictured above: Eastern Cape Department of Health Head of Department Dr Rolene Wagner and other senior officials addressing members of the media in Gqeberha on Monday.
Image source: Eastern Cape Department of Health
