COPE DEMANDS EXPLANATION FROM HEALTH MEC

COPE DEMANDS EXPLANATION FROM HEALTH MEC

By BRIAN KAJENGO

COPE wants MEC of health Candith Mashego Dlamini to account for the patients who were left for hours alone during a strike by nurses

COPE in Mpumalanga demands an immediate explanation from the MEC for health, Candith Mashego Dlamini, as to why patients were left unattended at the Matikwane hospital on April 1.

COPE has reliably been informed that the bungling of the process of the provincial government’s taking over of the hospital from a private company was so severe that it left nurses and other workers confused.

The confusion was justified because the hospital employees had not signed new employment agreements showing that the Mpumalanga government was their new employer.

The strike by the hospital employees left patients unattended to on Tuesday, April 1, 2014 from morning until around 3pm and only one midwife manned the Maternity ward.

COPE demands answers as to why the government failed to sign the so called three months transitional period agreement to allow for a smooth takeover of the hospital without any hindrances.

The hospital had been run by a private company since the late eighties following an agreement between the private sector and the then Gazankulu government

That agreement was for a period of 25 years and now that it has expired, the provincial government has taken the hospital over.

COPE says it is sad that the bugling by the provincial department of health led to the private company taking away its resources that included stationary, pads and pampers on the night of March 31, 2014, thereby leaving the patients stranded.

COPE’s provincial premier candidate, Comrade Sizile Ndlovu, will be writing to Mahego-Dlamini to demand the answers.