The lack of working landline phones at all healthcare facilities in Sedibeng, the south of Johannesburg has led to the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) marching to the Sedibeng District Health Service on Tuesday to hand over a memorandum.
This is after Telkom last month disconnected landlines at 32 hospitals and 83 clinics due to "outstanding" payments by the department.
Despite promises to resolve the unpaid phone bills, several phone lines at some of the Gauteng Hospitals are still down.
"The service provider has not been paid for the service and therefore all the phones are not working. Workers rely on a limited number of cell phones to keep the facilities running. This is the latest shocking example of poor service delivery in our hospitals.
"Nurses are sick and tired of the verbal and sometimes physical abuse from members of the community because of poor service delivery," it said in a statement.
About 11 hospitals have disconnected lines, but are still operating.
The affected provincial hospitals include:
- Carletonville Hospital
- Tshwane District Hospital
- Pholosong Hospital
- Far East Rand Hospital
- Tara H Moross Psychiatric Hospital and
- Weskoppies Hospital
- Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital
- Steve Biko Academic Hospital
- Pretoria West Hospital
- Jubilee Hospital
The memorandum was received by Makibiti Madolo the Acting Chief Director of the District.
The union said the Sedibeng hospitals phone fiasco has led to the welfare of patients being compromised.
It said their members were frustrated because the district and health department refused to take decisive action to improve healthcare services in the region.
HAITU said it was fighting for workers and improved benefits and wages and also on behalf of the community for increased resources and funding.
The trade union stressed that the healthcare services were deteriorating on a daily basis and the condition of hospitals and clinics is worsening every day.
"Healthcare workers in the public sector are unknowingly violating the rights of patients because we are unable to guarantee that those who are sick, will be treated in a clean, dignified environment.
“The district management and the province continue to demand that healthcare workers must perform at their best, even though there are massive staff shortages which contribute to the poor service delivery," it said.
It added that facilities were always running out of essential items like medication, and tools of the trade including drips, syringes, and blood pressure machines, to name a few.
Some of the demands included that all nurses must be in-sourced and given permanent employment, the department prioritise spending on infrastructure in order to repair and improve the state of public healthcare facilities, and healthcare facilities must be supplied with all the tools of the trade which will enable workers to do the work of saving lives and all security personnel to be in-sourced.
IOL