Denosa defends nurses for placing new born babies in boxes
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) provincial chairperson Mzwakhe Seleke has come out to defend the actions of the nurses at the Mahikeng hospital in the North West Province who placed newborn babies in boxes instead of incubators.
“The issues that were on the ground on the day was that the shortages and the overcrowding of the wards. Both the management and the CEO were made aware. The interventions that were put in place in the ward were also communicated to management. It is our view that the management of that hospital are really playing duck and dive, they just want to pin this whole thing on the nurses, who were trying their best to deal and salvage the situation.”
This is after North West health MEC Madoda Sambatha announced that he has instructed the department to institute an investigation, as a matter of urgency,however, Denosa insists the matter does not need any investigation.
“It is the daily reality that health-care workers are always faced with in the health-care service centres due to the shortage of equipment and resources,” said Denosa North West provincial secretary Reuben Molete.
“As a matter of context, the neonatal intensive care unit at the hospital, which is the ICU for infants soon after their birth, has been short of 20 incubators and cribs for a long period of time now, with no sign of these coming.
“The unit has 25 incubators, and had more than 55 babies on the day in question, looked after by only seven nurses,” Molete said.
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