By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Healthcare workers at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital says if the more than 800 contracts are terminated, this will compromise the provision of health services and put the lives of patients at risk.
They held a picket outside the hospital in Soweto. More than 800 workers were hired at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic to augment the current healthcare staff.
They say the hospital is facing a staff shortage and needs the assistance of the additional healthcare workers. Chairperson of the Medical Advisory Committee at the hospital Mampapatla Ramogopa says the hospital is limping from one crisis to another.
“Even more embarrassing of late we hear there is no bread for patients in this hospital. If you take a walk in the hospital, you find that the waste material is overflowing in the bins, it has not been collected in a long time, because of non-payment and as a result, doctors and nurses have to contribute money to buy food for patients.”
Chris Hani Baragwanath, which is the largest public hospital in South Africa, also made headlines last week because some medical interns had not been paid their full salaries.
In a statement released on Monday, the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) said 53 of the 56 medical interns’ salaries had now been paid.
The department attributed the delay in paying salaries to an over-allocation of medical interns to the province by the national health department.
“This has meant that GDoH has had to first confirm additional full funding for any excess interns allocated to the province beyond the available baseline of GDoH funded posts. This unfortunately results in delays in payments to some of the interns,” the department said in the statement.
Meanwhile the Gauteng Health Department has denied that Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital has run out of food.
On Thursday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) raised concerns that hospital had run out of food because of contract mismanagement and non-payment of suppliers.
DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health Jack Bloom said Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital had no bread for the past two weeks and that some doctors and nurses had taken in food to feed starving patients.
However, in a tweet the Gauteng Health Department assured people that the hospital has enough food for patients.
“We wish to assure families of patients and the public that Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital has not run out of food. All other types of food are served, there was only a short supply of bread which has thus far been resolved and the bread supply capacity improved.”