The Public Servants Association of South Africa (PSA), KwaZulu-Natal has called on the provincial Department of Health to prioritize the security issue at the government hospital in Umlazi township, Prince Mshiyeni Memorial.
This comes after a video went viral on social media showing a patient, who was bleeding, fighting with the hospital guards. The spokesperson for PSA in the province, Mr Mlungisi Ndlovu, said that the lack of training of the hospital’s guards is something that should be of concern to the department.
He said it is sad that this hospital is one of the largest hospitals in the townships and receives a large volume of patients, but it is the one that seems to be the most neglected when it comes to security.” There is no hospital as unsafe as this one. we feel that the guards there are not properly trained,” said Ndlovu. He said there is a difference between a security guard assigned to guard an area with patients, a security guard for vehicles carrying money and those who guard strikes and so on.
“It is important that the department trains hospital security guards, they should be trained on how to deal with patients who come to seek help from the hospital,” he said.
He said that what they want to see happen is that a thorough investigation is done regarding the incident that was recorded in the video in which the security guard and the patient were fighting. “An investigation is done and appropriate measures are taken,” said Ndlovu.
He said they understand that sometimes the patients are the ones who provoke the workers, but he said that only an investigation can come out with answers as to what exactly happened on the day of the incident. He said last year there was an incident where a nurse was kidnapped by an unknown car outside the hospital. He also complained that patients and staff are losing their belongings, stolen by thieves who enter the hospital.
The spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, Mr Ntokozo Maphisa, said the department has called an urgent meeting with the relevant agencies. “As a department, we do not agree with incidents of violence within our institutions. We have contacted the security company concerned, and they have taken appropriate measures for their security,” said Maphisa. He went on to say that the patient received the treatment he needed.