Negotiations lead to withdrawal of suspension notices for maternity ward strike leaders at Dora Nginza Hospital

Pictures taken by the Eastern Cape Department of Health during a high level visit last month where doctors and nurses were begging them to make a plan to employ more staff at Dora Nginza Hospital. (Photo: Supplied)

By Estelle Ellis

10 Oct 2022

Following negotiations over the weekend, the Eastern Cape health department has withdrawn precautionary suspension notices issued to two of the shop stewards at the hospital following a violent nurses’ strike at the maternity unit and the paediatric wing where doctors were prevented from helping pregnant moms.

The department confirmed on Monday morning that the precautionary suspension of two of the leaders of a violent strike at Dora Nginza Hospital where doctors were prevented from helping pregnant women, were withdrawn over the weekend as part of negotiations to get the hospital up and running again.

“Following engagements on Friday and Saturday between the head of department and provincial and Nelson Mandela Bay regional leaders of organised labour, it was mutually affirmed that all stakeholders want to ensure that pregnant women are admitted into available beds,” Health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda said.

“An agreement was reached to suspend the strike action with immediate effect on Friday evening.”

She said plans were shared with organised labour on how the department will ease the burden on the hospital’s maternity unit and that there will be no patients on the floor or on chairs.

However, a doctor told Maverick Citizen they faced ongoing harassment to stop admitting critical patients on Monday morning.

As part of the department’s plan, a theatre and 16-bed ward has been opened at Port Elizabeth Provincial Hospital to provide additional capacity in Nelson Mandela Bay for patients requiring basic care and C-sections.

But the new plan came too late for two moms – one who delivered a stillborn baby and another whose child, born with several neurological complications, died during the strike.

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Dekeda confirmed that all workers have reported for duty to resume their responsibilities and services were fully restored over the weekend.

“The department is meeting with the National Department of Health and Office of the Presidency as they have offered support for the sustainable solutions,” she added.

She added that there was a need for the department to address the growing demand for obstetric mental health services as well as emergency medicine in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The strike marked the second large-scale collapse at the unit. The first occurred during the first Covid-19 wave in 2020 when workers abandoned their posts after the unit became flooded with pregnant women as local maternity units closed down.

Read in Daily Maverick: “Putting hell into health: The people of Nelson Mandela Bay deserve better than this”

In July 2022, in a letter addressed to the department’s management and jointly signed by all the heads of the different clinical departments, doctors warned that the hospitals were becoming unsafe due to dire staff shortages – a claim that was denied by officials at the time.

A picture taken by the Eastern Cape health department during a high-level visit last month when doctors and nurses begged for more staff at Dora Nginza Hospital. (Photo: Supplied)

Just more than a month ago the head of obstetrics and gynaecology, Dr Mfundo Mabenge, who was held hostage by striking workers last week, and several nurses pleaded with a high-level delegation from the national Department of Health headed by Deputy Minister Sibongiseni Dhlomo, Deputy Minister in the Presidency Pinky Kekana and provincial health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth.

At the time Kekana promised that they would conduct follow-up visits. DM/MC

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