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PATIENTS ARE DYING – HEALTH WORKERS

By NOMFANELO MA ZIYA | 2023-06-30

Medical staff at the Mbabane Government Hospital has petitioned government over the shortage of medical supplies and staff, which they say has resulted in unnecessary deaths and amputations.

The medical personnel, who consisted of doctors, nurses and support staff, petitioned Cabinet and the ministry of health, decried that the shortage of staff and medical supplies or lack thereof resulted in unnecessary amputation of infected wounded areas, deaths and constant fights with patients.

According to the health workers, there was also a shortage of transport and fuel, among other challenges.

Although they could not account for the number of deaths that had occurred due to the challenges they faced, they could easily confirm that an unnecessary death occurred on a daily basis.

The situation, they said, had escalated to such as degree that even record taking had become nearly impossible because both doctors and nurses always attend to one issue or another, which further caused burnout among their medical staff..

The health workers said they had also observed a continuous and worsening shortage of drugs and medical supplies, resulting in poor quality care offered by the facility as patients were forced to buy drugs and medical supplies in order to be assisted.

This they said had caused unnecessary deaths of patients, especially in cases where they could clearly see that with a little bit of supplies, those patients would have left the hospital healthy, instead of through the mortuary doors.

“Let us take, for example, the accident that occurred last week involving 21 soldiers. Ten lives would have been lost in that accident were it not for members of the public,” said a doctor. According to the doctor, the soldiers were best assisted through their own supplies which they were able to receive from one of their clinics in Phocweni. He added that another life was lost due to a lack of nebulizers.

Challenges
“We could have easily treated the patient who came in with an asthma attack. We asked that the family goes to a pharmacy to buy supplies but unfortunately upon their return, the patient had already lost the fight,” said the doctor.

They said there were many scenarios to choose from over the past three weeks alone but chose these two to highlight the challenges.

Adding, they also expressed that patients were upon agitation with the lack of medication at the dispensary, threatening the safety and lives of the medical professionals.

“One day patients will be the ones to kill us. We are here to save lives, the ministry should help us save lives and not put ours in the firing line,” expressed one of the medical staff.

They further stated that although medical staff had become accustomed to working under these ‘abnormal circumstances and making compromises,’ the challenges which were beyond their control painted them as an incompetent bunch.

“It makes it seem as though we are not interested in helping our patients whereas it’s the situation we find ourselves working in that limits our reach and effective treatment of our end-product, which is the patient,” they expressed.

Another doctor expressed fear that one day members who belong to popular gangs would have the confidence to take the situation into their own hands and actually harm the medical staff in the event that they were unable to assist them or another gang member.

“We do not pick and choose which patients to attend, we treat every person who walks through those doors equally but gang members do not wait to negotiate, one day this situation will land us in hot water,” said the doctor.

They added that their fear was that in the event that a patient or their family did one day become violent and attacked medical staff, they would not be able to assist them just the same and they would also be killed unnecessarily.

Furthermore the staff also relayed how they sterilised and reused plastic working tools, which should not be the case and was not a healthy compromise.

“We do not have bandages, antibiotics, insulin and other medication, the situation has become so dire that the hospital is now out of the bare minimum, which is panado,” said another.
They stated that the supplies issue had caused many amputations of limbs, which would have otherwise been treated.

“We do not have bandages and after treating wounds, they get infected which then causes us to resort to amputating the limb in order to save the life.”
The staff marched to the ministry they call home but to their surprise were not received by the principal secretary as they had wished.

Attention
Breaking out in song and dance to get the attention from the relevant individuals and further taking to the ministry of health passages, which disrupted operations, causing a stir and further attention from the Royal Eswatini Police Service.

Upon the police intervention, the medical staff was advised to minimise the disturbance as there was nothing wrong with marching peacefully but there was everything wrong with causing a disturbance, especially knowing the current political climate in the country.

Eventually the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Thembi Dlamini, Financial Controller, Sikhumbuzo Sukati and Legal Advisor, Mehlule Ndlela, came out to receive the petition but the medical staff refused to hand it over to them stating that they had addressed it to the principal secretary and therefore expected to hand it to him.

“We cannot leave it with someone we do not know because it will be easy for the ministry to deny knowledge of this petition,” they said.

Although Dlamini pleaded with the group to leave the petition with them, the staff refused and said they would return today to deliver it to the principal secretary. They then marched to Cabinet and their arrival coincided with that of the Health PS, Dr Simon Zwane, much to their dismay.

However, they refused to hand over the petition to him at the Cabinet gates saying they would visit him at the ministry today. At Cabinet, they were met by the Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister’s office, Bertram Stewart, who received the petition and stated that the issues they were faced with were not government’s intention as they understood how important a life is.

“The King also addressed these issues yesterday (Tuesday when officially opening the Sitselo Semphilo Private Hospital) stating that the health sector was one of government’s key priorities.”
Stewart said it had been highlighted and discussed that there was a shortage of medication in the hospital, and that the challenge was also highlighted at Cabinet level.

“We hope that the issue can be resolved in a timely manner, although I do not know how it can be resolved, my office has also received a request for additional nurses whose progress we will check,” he said.

Dr Zwane when contacted later acknowledged that the issues raised in the petition were critical.
“Government and the ministry of health have prioritised the issues pertaining to supply of medicines and medical supplies, as well as filling vacant positions,” said the controlling officer.
He said deliveries were made on Tuesday to Mbabane Government and Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospitals and were made yesterday to the Nhlangano, Mankayane, Hlatikulu and Matsenjeni facilities.

Zwane added, “Normal deliveries are continuing and are currently being made in the Lubombo region.”

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