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Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital picket ‘justified’ : DA’s Jack Bloom

10 March 2022, 5:42 PM |

SABC | @SABCNews

People seen outside Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

Image: GroundUP

People seen outside Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital

The Democratic Alliance’s spokesperson on health Jack Bloom says the anger and frustration by picketing staff at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto south of Johannesburg are justifiable.

The healthcare workers are unhappy about a string of issues including the cutting of posts and services concerning waste removal.

There’s also a reported staffing backlog which is said to be exacerbated by the closure of the fire-damaged Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.

Bloom says problems at the Gauteng Health Department started before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The reality is that COVID-19 or not COVID-19 our hospitals are desperately understaffed and they do need to be properly staffed with local doctors and nurses. We don’t need to go to Cuba to spend a huge amount of money on Cuban doctors, so I think there’s justifiable anger there and justifiable concerns because at the end of the day people are suffering there. Doctors work under inhumane conditions in many cases, why are basic management duties not being done, I think there’s a broader crisis here.”

Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital staffers picket

Temporary posts can’t be renewed

The Gauteng Health Department says it is unable to renew all the 8 000 COVID-19 temporary posts due to budgetary constraints. It says the initial COVID-19 grant budget of R2.2 billion towards compensating these workers has since been reduced to R1.1 billion for the 2022/23 financial year.

Therefore, the department will not be able to renew all the temporary contracts when their contracts end at the end of this month.

Gauteng Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana, “In as much as the GDoH wants to keep all COVID-19 appointees to continue providing much-needed services, it is not possible to extend all the contracts without funding. The MEC added that the decision on which employees will be appointed will be based on service needs at each hospital and the availability of the budget in each facility.”