Nurses, doctors under siege

Security guards at hospitals need to be armed, says nursing union Denosa, following a spate of attacks on doctors and nurses by patients or angry family members.

Gauteng MEC for health Quedani Mahlangu yesterday said there had been 65 attacks on health workers in the province since January 2015. Of these 20 were at Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital.

Mahlangu said security had been increased at psychiatric wards in Gauteng.

Psychiatric nurses receive a R329 monthly danger-pay allowance.

Last month a nurse at Hayani Psychiatric Hospital in Limpopo was killed by a patient in the prisoners' ward. He crept up behind the nurse and strangled her.

But attacks are not limited to psychiatric wards, according to Simphiwe Gada, Gauteng chairman of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa.

Last month a nurse was attacked by a family member of a deceased patient at Odi Hospital in Mabopane. The relative attempted to stranglethe nurse, Gada said.

At Natalspruit Hospital last month an injured patient was rushed to casualty. People he had been fighting with arrived at the hospital and were denied entry.

"They came presumably to finish the job and opened fire. People ran for cover and even the security guards ran away," Gada said.

"Guards don't even have batons to fight with. The only thing they have to protect the nurses is a ballpoint pen."

He said the unions wanted security guards hired directly by the department instead of outsourced.

"The issue of outsourcing security is a problem. A hospital is a gun-free zone but you need to have some armed guards as well as metal detectors at entrances."

Denosa spokesman Sibongiseni Delihlazo said nurses were "emotionally abused almost daily, and physical attacks are often the climax of verbal and emotional abuse from patients".

But he said verbal or emotional abuse rarely got raised.

A study released by Wits Public Health professor Laetitia Rispel last week on problems in the health system pointed out the "bad attitude of health workers" calling it a "crisis of unprofessional behaviour".

Denosa responded that unsafe conditions contributed to low morale among staff.