Amid much heartbreak among covid nurses who lost their jobs at the Brackengate hospital last week, provincial minister of health Dr Nomafrench Mbombo said thank you and goodbye.
“With the purpose of this facility having changed and requiring different skills in order to fulfil its new mandate, coupled with the budgetary pressures we face going forward, the department is no longer able to keep extending these (nursing) contracts at the expense of funding needed to see to residents’ medical needs met.
“We truly do value these nurses, and are supporting them where we can to obtain new opportunities,” she told TygerBurger on Friday.
READ | Nurses who braved pandemic at Covid hospital in Brackengate in line to lose jobs
Of the 196 nurses and other hospital staff who worked at the hospital during and after the pandemic, more than 50% lost their jobs as their contracts ended at the end of May.
In the midst of a heavy police presence at the hospital on Friday, the nurses, mostly women, protested at the entrance of the hospital. Law enforcement were called in after the women burnt a single tyre metres away from the entrance. Police set off two stunt grenades to disperse the crowd, but apart from that the protest was peaceful with nurses singing and dancing.
‘We are skilled’
According to nurses TygerBurger spoke to the predicament they find themselves in is heartbreaking.
“We went from heroes to zeroes. We risked our lives at this hospital when very few wanted to. How do we tell our children that we can’t pay their school fees anymore? It is not fair, we want our jobs back,” says one nurse who does not want to be named.
She and others allege that the department had not been transparent in their dealings with them. “We have worked at this very facility for the last 11 months after the covid hospital was closed doing the same general care nursing that is employed here now. Why then replace us with other nurses?” says professional nurse Gaynor Pedro.
“We are all qualified and fully capable to do general nursing. That includes wound care and administration of medication for TB patients for which we have the necessary skills. Wound care is a basic nursing skill taught in our first year of training. Not one of the patients here arrive here in a serious condition, whereas we nursed dying patients during the pandemic. We feel we were used and discarded and shown no appreciation for risking our lives during the pandemic. Many of our colleagues and patients died before our eyes and yet we came to work every day. If we are skilled for general nursing why were we tasked to care for dying covid patients? Did these patients not have the right to qualified care?”
Background
The covid field hospital was opened at the height of the pandemic in July 2020 and when covid numbers dwindled in June 2022 became a transitional care hospital for patients transferred from other metro hospitals that are not critical anymore, but not ready to be discharged.
The staff at the hospital were retained, their contracts extended and they continued to work at the transitional care facility until April this year, when their contracts were extended again, but only for two months.
According to National Public Service Workers Union (NPSWU) spokesperson Zolisa Menze, labour policies determine that nurses be absorbed into a position after a three-month contract period.
He says the nurses were replaced by other staff after the positions that weren’t in actual fact vacant were advertised.
“The department claims that the advertisement was internal, but this doesn’t explain why nurses from the private sector were appointed,” he says.
When approached with this question, the department declined to comment.
Mbombo furthermore told TygerBurger that the reduction of staff was coupled with budgetary pressures the department faces going forward. According to the department 117 staff members have already been appointed for the new Brackengate facility. Of the 117 appointments, 72 are staff members who worked at Brackengate during the previous phase.
“These appointees met the required criteria and scope which is required for the new service package offering at the transitional care facility,” said Dr Saadiq Kariem, Chief of Operations for the department.
However, according to Menze the total number of staff finally appointed at the new facility (that will exceed the 117) will not be much less than the 196 employed during covid, showing a small deficit in staff budget requirements.
But Kariem defended the department’s position.
“The Brackengate Covid-19 field hospital was originally established and funded as a Covid-19 facility, to cater for the overflow of patients during the pandemic. These contracts were extended where needed. For many months ahead of the time, the staff were informed that they would need to seek alternative employment opportunities and apply for other posts due to their contracts ending imminently. With far fewer clinical admissions as a result of Covid-19, and none at Brackengate, the department is no longer able to keep extending these contracts at the expense of funding needed to see to residents’ medical needs. Their final expiry came to 31 May 2023.
“While no longer specifically catering to the needs of the pandemic, this facility is being repurposed to serve as a general transitional care facility, which requires different nursing skills than previously required for Covid-19 patients. The commissioning of beds at the Brackengate facility are done via a phased approach and the facility will ultimately have 128 beds, which is fewer beds than the 338 Covid-19 field hospital beds, it thus also requires fewer staff.”
After the protest the department met with labour and union representatives to discuss an amicable way forward, he said.
TygerBurger was denied a request to sit in on this meeting but the department afterwards stated that it has given its commitment to conclude the current recruitment and selection process by the end of June and will then update the members.
“We have given our support to explore where vacancies exist within the public service to which they meet the required job criteria and to encourage them to apply for such vacancies that include positions at the new facility. We have been engaging with staff that were contracted to support the emergency Covid-19 response since October 2022 on the ending of their contracts, which were linked to this period of funding until March 2023. The department then provided new contracts for two months from its own budget. We thank the contract staff who worked at Brackengate Covid-19 hospital for their dedication. They served our patients with dignity and care,” says Kariem.
