The Temba TB hospital is in crisis because the provincial health department still hasn't given its board the go-ahead to hire desperately-needed nursing staff. The hospital lost its only doctor on Friday and if the department continues to drag its feet two more nurses will have to leave by the end of October.
The Temba TB hospital is in crisis because the provincial health department still hasn't given its board the go-ahead to hire desperately-needed nursing staff. The hospital lost its only doctor on Friday and if the department continues to drag its feet two more nurses will have to leave by the end of October.
Last Friday board chairman Xolani Simakuhle sent a letter to Eastern Cape Health MEC Sicelo Gqobana, explaining their dire situation and asking for permission to hire extra hands.
"We have a critical shortage of clinical staff especially professional nurses," the letter read. "At the end of the last financial year we had nine professional nurses of whom three were permanent and six were on contract."
"This staffing situation was far from ideal although the hospital was coping at that stage," Simakuhle wrote. The hospital now has five professional nurses rendering a 24-hour service, two of whom work night shifts. This leaves three nurses doing day shifts seven days a week. The board reports that there is enough money in their budget to hire the additional staff, yet the facility in Fingo Village housing 60 beds has had to say goodbye to staff members and discharge half of their in-patients.
Without permission to renew staff contracts or hire new nurses, the handful who remain simply can't cope with the current workload. Financial constraints have resulted in a moratorium preventing health facilities in the province from hiring or renewing contracts, but Simakuhle appealed to the MEC to grant them special permission seeing as they would be able to pay extra staff.
As of Thursday the letter, which also asked for the MEC to meet with the board, remained unanswered. On 24 August Grocott's Mail reported on the hospital's decision to limit their in-patient number and discharge patients before their TB treatment is complete.
Simakuhle warned that this could cause a TB outbreak in the area because many patients don't adhere to their treatment schedules once leaving the facility. Spokesperson for the Eastern Cape's Department of Health Sizwe Kupelo denied that it was risky to send patients home because they were given health education during their hospital stay.
