The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) says it is concerned about the high number of attacks on health care workers by the mental health care users.
According to the Democratic Alliance (DA), Gauteng hospital staff have suffered 61 attacks by patients since January 2022. Mentally ill patients have been fingered as being the most perpetrators targeting health care workers.
The Gauteng health department in the meantime, says it’s putting measures in place to deal with the situation.
Denosa spokesperson in Gauteng, Sibongiseni Delihlazo is calling for the government’s swift response.
“It’s a concern as well that these mental health care users are put in facilities or units where the nurses and the health care workers are not trained on how to deal with mental health care users. So this is a risk for the patients and the health care workers. So, our call to the government will be as we approach the Workers Day, these units where these patients are kept are adequately sourced with the people who are properly trained and take the people who are there to get training so that they can be able to deal with mental health users who are of a violent nature,” says Delihlazo.
