A series of robberies at healthcare products and services within the Japanese Cape has disrupted products and services, with sufferers every so assuredly left ready outdoors while clinics limit the amount of of us allowed in. This follows the provincial health department spending over R700 million on security contracts within the past financial year, reports Luvuyo Mehlwana.
Fearing for their safety, nurses at Booysen Park Health facility in Nelson Mandela Bay now work on the encourage of locked gates as sufferers are left to encourage for hours outdoors after it suspended indoor queues due to an armed robbery.
Booysen Park Health facility is one of a couple of health products and services forced to characteristic on this form because armed gangs focused on healthcare workers and sufferers in Nelson Mandela Bay, which contains the Metropolis of Port Elizabeth and the smaller towns of Uitenhage, Despatch and Colchester.
In September, the Japanese Cape Department of Neatly being briefly shut KwaZakhele Health facility following reports from workers people about means felony activities focused on the energy.
“This has saved the workers from potential harm and trauma,” said Mkhululi Ndamase, spokesperson for health MEC Ntandokazi Capa. “The department condemns the targeting of healthcare facilities and workers with the contempt it deserves,” he added.
KwaZakhele Health facility used to be reopened after police reported that there used to be no credible threat of crime, said Ndamase. He encouraged residents to work with law enforcement agencies and fable crimes or plans to commit a criminal offense against healthcare products and services and workers.
A patient at KwaZakhele Health facility agreed that making clinics safe would require toughen from the workers. “These healthcare workers are working in our community, meaning it is our responsibility as the community to protect them. As the community of KwaZakhele, we have adopted and are promoting the ‘see something, say something’ mentality,” Sinthia Swartbooi informed Spotlight.
“We are scared now to come to the clinic, and we are no longer carrying our cell phones when we visit the clinic due to this robbery crisis….I see no point in robbing a place that saves people’s lives,” she said.
Extra than one incidents
Folks at Despatch Health facility had been robbed for the fifth time in one year in August. Earlier this month, Motherwell NU8 Health facility used to be the aim when workers and sufferers had been robbed and the safety guard used to be accosted and robbed. Security guards at Motherwell Community Neatly being Centre used to be also not spared by felony gangs when they had been robbed of their property in July.
The ramifications of these incidents are felt in other clinics too. To illustrate, if a nearby sanatorium is impacted by a robbery, then sufferers tend to inform Motherwell Community Neatly being Centre’s casualty department which operates 24/7 no matter it being designed for emergencies, said a nurse working on the centre. She requested to not be named since she isn’t allowed to discuss over with the media.
“We realised after these constant robberies in [several health] facilities that casualties are becoming a clinic, as people are flocking in large numbers,” she said. “Although the casualty ward is meant for emergencies, like stabbings, gunshots, and those who are struggling to breathe, now we are treating minor illnesses, such as children who are vomiting and those who have high temperatures.”
Making it hard for nurses
“The patients are greatly affected by the closure of clinics due to robbery. They have to travel long distances for healthcare services. In some cases, others will refuse to be redirected to other facilities. That is making it difficult for us to follow their progress,” said a nurse working at Joe Slovo Health facility.
Joe Slovo Health facility used to be robbed for the third time this year in September.
“As workers, we are concerned about our safety and security in this clinic since we have been robbed…. We therefore call upon the department to strengthen security for the sake of our safety and patients,” said the nurse who did not prefer to be named because she does not enjoy permission to insist to the media
“They must deter criminals by installing effective alarm systems and adequate security guards because these robberies create a very unique challenge for healthcare facilities. In the past, facilities operated like shopping centres with all the doors open, but now it is difficult to open the doors because we are easy targets,” she added.
JUST PUBLISHED | Thandokazi Capa is the unusual MEC for Neatly being within the Japanese Cape. We requested her about her imaginative and prescient for healthcare within the province and round up some early responses to her appointment from healthcare unions and political parties. @ec_health2 https://t.co/8sP0KjBx86
— Spotlight (@SpotlightNSP) June 25, 2024
Per Ward 41 committee member accountable for safety and security, Mbulelo Daliwe, a robbery in Can even merely at Joe Slovo Health facility resulted in a pregnant lady going into early labour and being rushed to one other sanatorium. Frustrated residents then decided to shut the sanatorium and raised the subject of safety with the health district administrative heart.
“The District Office promised that they would implement some security measures. They assured us that they would add another security officer in addition to the one we already had. We also demanded a fence and gates because there were no gates,” Mbulelo said.
“They installed the gates, but we are still waiting for the fence and additional security to come and secure this place. The government must stop gambling with people’s lives because these nurses are starting to be demotivated due to poor working conditions.”
Spotlight visited a couple of clinics (Joe Slovo Health facility, Motherwell NU8 Health facility, Thanduxolo Health facility, KwaZakhele Health facility, Booysen Park Health facility, and Schauderville Health facility) all over Nelson Mandela Bay. The most major entrance gates to every of these clinics had been manned by a single security guard. KwaZakhele Community Neatly being Centre and Motherwell Community Neatly being Centre had between four and six security guards wanting autos coming into their premises, nonetheless friends weren’t checked for harmful weapons.
‘I absolute best enjoy one life’
A security guard, who did not prefer to be named because he isn’t allowed to insist to the media, said working at Schauderville Health facility which fell prey to crime in September is unstable due to crime within the recount. “I am always scared because I only have one life, and I come here not knowing if I will return home safely.”
He said the energy has many gates that are birth to the final public, thus making it hard to effect an eye on the recount. “There’s the main entrance, and there is another entrance that leads to the councillor’s office and community hall, which causes issues for security and the ability to maintain a safe environment.”
He prompt health authorities originate stronger links with communities and the police to encourage curb crime, adding: “CCTV cameras can be installed, but these thugs are brave, they can shoot out the CCTV cameras.”
The usage of CCTV cameras in public healthcare products and services had been increased in 2019 after an incident of a patient who used to be killed at All Saints Neatly being facility in Ngcobo. The suspect barged into the casualty ward and stabbed a patient to death while docs and nurses had been treating him for stab wounds within the chest.
The knife-wielding man forced his formulation by the casualty recount and passed security guards who had been deployed on the clinic. The safety personnel who had been on responsibility would possibly additionally not prevent the suspect from stabbing the patient to death.
Measures had been taken
Ndamase informed Spotlight various safety features had been taken to make particular the safety of workers and sufferers. “This is why the department has ensured that at each of our almost 1 000 facilities, there are security guards. The department has also installed CCTV cameras, beams, panic buttons that are linked to 24-hour armed response, appropriate fencing, and gates, among other security measures,” he said.
The department will be striking extra effort into improving rep real of entry to administration by perimeter fencing of the products and services. “We have made strides to install automated perimeter gates, and we endeavour to improve the perimeter lighting. We have ensured that all contracted security companies have minimum security equipment,” said Ndamase.
Citing findings from the Mexican Council for Public Security and Prison Justice on its annual ranking of the 50 most violent cities on this planet, Ndamase renowned that Gqeberha in Nelson Mandela Bay ranked amount 10 on this planet for basically the most threatening cities, adding that the crime within the city has now spilled over to not absolute best health products and services nonetheless also other authorities departments and companies.
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We raise you 10 unhappy, ravishing and ravishing aspects on what has changed within the Japanese Cape’s healthcare machine for the explanation that final national and provincial elections in 2019, and shoutouts to our readers: https://t.co/QoLyVmaxwZ pic.twitter.com/HM4JyBIg4p
— Spotlight (@SpotlightNSP) April 12, 2024
The high crime price, he said, is a societal field that needs collaborative efforts from all relevant stakeholders. “No single department is able to fight crime single-handedly,” Ndamase said. “The department has since signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Community Safety on behalf of the Justice Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Cluster, while we have direct relations with the police, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Police, and civil society.”
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Ndamase informed Spotlight that 119 atomize-ins and robberies at health products and services all over the province enjoy prompted roughly R1.5 million in damages in 2023/24 and the contemporary financial year to this point.
He said that within the course of the 2023/24 financial year, the provincial health department spent over R700 million on security contracts to a pair of clustered tenders awarded to different companies.
“This was money well spent, as the presence of security guards at our facilities has prevented many other crimes. We can confirm that the services are provided in line with the service level agreements with the security companies,” he said.
He stressed: “[T]he security companies are not the ones committing the crimes against healthcare workers and health facilities, but rather the criminal elements often coming from the very communities where our health facilities are providing care, it would be unfair and unfortunate to blame the companies for what is a societal problem.”
Names of security companies withheld
Spotlight requested Ndamase for the names of the companies awarded tenders to offer security products and services at healthcare products and services within the Japanese Cape, nonetheless he declined to offer any particulars. “In line with the [Protection of Personal Information Act] POPI Act and the conditions of the service level agreement, we cannot divulge the names of the service providers,” he said.
However the POPIA isn’t an absolute barrier to disclosing files held by a public body, equivalent to a provincial health department, in maintaining with Tina Energy, Accomplice Director at public ardour law agency Energy & Associates.
“There appears to be an increasing trend in which public bodies are refusing to disclose information by relying broadly on POPIA, without expressly referring to a particular section, or by seeking to rely on confidentiality provisions in service-level agreements. This is contrary to the constitutional values of openness and accountability, and the public interest in information that concerns the exercise of constitutional rights, such as access to health care,” said Energy.
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