Cecilia Makiwane nurses stage silent protest

Nursing staff at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in Mdantsane downed tools on Tuesday morning demanding the provincial health department close the entire building off for decontamination and provide them with “proper” protective equipment.

Six of their colleagues have died after complications stemming from Covid-19, they said.

The nurses, who spoke to DispatchLIVE without giving their names as they are not authorised to speak to the media, embarked on a silent protest outside the building on Tuesday.

One nurse accused management of “hiding” the number of coronavirus cases at the hospital.

“They [management] want to create this notion that they are managing the Covid-19 situation, which is not true,” she said.

“We can’t manage this virus here because we don’t have PPE [personal protective equipment] and this building needs to be fumigated.

“Do you see these people crying?” she asked DispatchLIVE.

“They are hearing about another colleague who has died from Covid-19.”

DispatchLIVE was given a list of more than 30 positive coronavirus cases at the hospital.  

Six nurses have tested positive at G1 ward, two at G2, one at G4, three at the medical outpatients ward and two in the mortuary wing. Two people at the hospital's laundry have tested positive and three at  internal medicine.

According to the list, there are  six positive cases in A and B wards,  six cases in the labour ward and three at  ICU.

“We are using green gowns from the theatre, and green gowns are not PPE.  

“We are demanding  full PPE kits or else we are going to keep dying like this,” the nurse said.

Another nurse said two of her friends died on Tuesday.

“A good friend of mine and his wife got infected at the hospital, and now he’s dead.

“Another friend of mine working at our mortuary was sent to transport the corpse of a patient who died from coronavirus.

“He was not told that the person died of Covid-19 and that he needed to protect himself. As we speak he is fighting for his life in the ICU,” she said.

She said Cecilia Makiwane recently recruited graduates who had completed internships at the hospital, and they, too, were  showing symptoms of Covid-19.

“They [management] decided to hire  interns to handle folders at Covid-19 wards, and now those interns are sick. ”

Questions were sent to provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo, but he had not responded by print deadline on Tuesday.

Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA provincial secretary  Khaya Sodidi said the department was failing to protect its workers.

“If there is no PPE, the nurses must not work. We are concerned about the rising the numbers of nurses who are becoming infected,” he said. "They are rising at an alarming rate."

He said the health department was “not taking the front-liners seriously” when it came to fumigation and deep cleaning as they insisted it was enough to wipe down small areas where known cases had been.

“Management wants to clean up and get back to work now, which is not supposed to be the case.

" We need to give those decontaminated areas a reasonable amount of time before work resumes."

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