Angry nurses will march tomorrow

MANZINI – The Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union (SWADNU) will march to the Ministry of Health tomorrow to deliver a petition over the impasse at the TB Hospital.

This was a resolution taken yesterday during a meeting at the Hope House in Manzini. Nkosinathi Kunene, the Secretary General of SWADNU said they had a general council meeting where they discussed the TB Hospital’s issues.

"As an organisation, we saw it fit to alert other structures such as the regional representatives, to find out if TB nurses in their hospitals or clinics are taken care of. We found out that in almost all the regions of Swaziland, nurses are facing the same conditions, which are not acceptable," said Kunene.

He said reports from other regions indicate that they also had situations where their staff members were infected by MDR or TB. A number of nurses had been causalities because of the poor conditions of the TB departments in the country.

"After lengthy deliberation, we then resolved to deliver a petition to the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, that will call upon the ministry to improve the conditions at the TB Hospital with immediate effect," said Kunene. He said the TB Hospital nurses would continue to stay away from the institution until their concerns are addressed and every-thing returned to normal.

He said they were expecting the ministry to also make sure it complies with the court order that was issued in February, to improve the con-ditions still affecting the TB Hospital staff.

"We also decided that we will do an assessment on the other hospitals to see whether they have good conditions.

"We plead with those who will be on leave and who are working in other regions, to join us when we deliver the petition with the TB Hospital staff," said Kunene.

Armed forces’ nurses, Red Cross asked to assist

This was revealed by the Swaziland Democratic Nurses Union Secretary General Nkosinathi Kun-ene. He decried the action, saying Correctional Services and Red Cross nurses did not have iron lungs and could be exposed to the dangerous conditions at the hospital.

"Bringing in nurses from the armed forces and the Red Cross doesn’t change the fact that they are also nurses by profession, so we will not just keep quiet as if we are okay with what the ministry is doing," said Kunene.

He said the Ministry of Health should just deal with the issue at hand, so as to find a lasting solution to the crisis.

Please, let’s talk,  pleads Health PS

In an interview yesterday, he said they had planned to meet nurses who are on strike at 2pm, but up until 4.30pm, they had still not showed up.

"We want to deal with this matter through dialogue and we implore the health care workers to come to the table to discuss the issues and I believe we will come up with a lasting solution," he said.

Shongwe said among the issues they planned on talking about, was how far they had gone with implementing resolutions of an agreement they made after they were taken to court by nurses.

He said they had made a lot of progress and wanted to give feedback to the nurses.

‘...won’t close down’

Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Stephen Shongwe, said they were doing all they could to ensure that the 62 patients admitted at the hospital were attended to while at the same time try to address the issues of the striking workers.

"We are not neglecting the wor- kers’ concerns.

"On the contrary, we are working hard to ensure that the working conditions are improved.

"The health care workers’ lives are a priority to government just as the patients which is why we are working hard to try and solve this issue," he said.

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