Never had I imagined having to break in and out of work. To understand the nature of this strike, you need to realise that a hospital has both clinical and non-clinical staff. The clinical staff are far more reliant on the non-clinical staff in order for the hospital to function in any capacity and to be absolutely clear, this is primarily a strike by the non-clinical staff. These include the porters, ward clerks, cleaning and kitchen staff etc. These are people who work in the health-care sector, rather than being health-care workers! It is important to make this distinction, because all too often doctors and nurses are fingered as the guilty parties. I hope this account sets the record straight.
Late on Wednesday afternoon last week, there were whispers in the corridors that chaos will erupt the next day. Management was not formally informed by any party. At 5am, union members entered the hospital premises with chains and locks, and proceeded to lock every entrance and exit. They subdued the security guards by torching the guardhouse. The situation was simple; you were either locked out, or locked in!
The shift change happens every day at 7am. Nurses that had worked the night diligently continued with their duties, and were assisted by student nurses that managed to sneak in from the nearby nursing college on the premises. That effort was promptly halted by union members who stormed the wards and laboratory, effectively evacuating all staff with threats of murder, rape and violence.
The doctors on duty the previous night managed to remain in the hospital, and stayed in communication with the many that were waiting outside. I was amongst those outside. I tried to walk through, but was promptly bundled back on to the street. Tyres burnt fervently, and the SAPS kept a watchful but somewhat condoning eye on the proceedings. I asked three policemen to escort me in, but was told that their comrades would lynch them. They remained disinterested. As we waited, the situation in the hospital grew increasingly desperate. Different departmental heads embraced different attitudes, with some of the major disciplines being nonchalant. Some of the doctors I was with knew that we needed to get in, and do what we can.
News then broke that the military was pre-occupied at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, and that no help would be forthcoming in the immediate future. Many of the non-strikers then abandoned ship, and headed home. Others like me parked in a taxi rank, and jumped over a dodgy fence a distance away from the strikers and got on to the premises. We quickly alerted others of this opportunity.
The hospital was eerily silent. The patients were abandoned. Doctors of all rank then worked in groups of two, and saw to the patients. Linen and nappies were changed. Food was sought by the brave dieticians who fed the entire hospital. Medication was dispensed. All patients who showed even the slightest sign of recovery were discharged to complete therapy at home. Critically ill patients were transferred to private hospitals. The hospital was closed to new admissions.
The majority of the nurses were not striking. They were simply locked out, or intimidated out. A few courageous nurses found their way in to the hospital, and got stuck in. Later we watched from the windows as the water tanker relieved the sweaty crowd. The army arrived in the evening, by which time most of the work had been done. We climbed back over the wall, and left the night staff to man their stations. A few cars were found damaged.
The level of intimidation is scary. Young interns were threatened with rape if they left the staff residence. Five beefy union members with sjamboks patrolled nearby. The apathy of the SAPS left us helpless. Those of us that worked in this environment were on our own. We were scared, but not half as scared as the patients.
Suffice to say that management remain clueless. There is yet to be a meeting with all clinical heads to strategise or respond appropriately. People are doing what they can without cohesion or leadership. Twenty-odd volunteers got in on Friday morning last week. I broke open an isolated gate to get in, and promptly got threatened with arrest for damaging hospital property. Many more have made it in today, buoyed by accounts of their fortunate colleagues the day before. Patients are being discharged or transferred en masse. To this point, no patient in the hospital has died as a direct consequence of the strike. I fear, however, that many more will die as a consequence of not getting in!
Over the last few years, the public has lost faith in state hospitals. We are hopeless. Perhaps, there is a glimmer of light in the knowledge that many doctors and nurses at Helen Joseph Hospital tried their level best for their patients. The salaries are poor, and the Occupation Specific Dispensation has been a monumental failure. However, few things in life are as priceless as a clear conscience.
By a doctor who prefers to remain anonymous
Oh my goodness, thank you very much for writing this, and also for the work that you and your colleagues are doing, and still trying to do!
A sincere and huge ‘thank you’ doesn’t seem enough.
Have you seen the item in the Sowetan about a teacher? (no, not a good or heartwarming story like this one, about a teacher in a BMW and whose child attends Culumbeeck Primary School in Witpoortjie, who should be ashamed of himself!)
I acknowledge your dedication and bravery. You are a star
This is so sad…….and a shame on the nation!!
Helen Joseph must be turning in her grave at the realization that the ANC she gave her life’s efforts to support have run the nation into the ditch to this extent. The gross mismanagement and dereliction of duty by the ruling party amounts to nothing short of sabotage of the nation. What a sad, sad situation we find ourselves in. I can only hope that this mess will finally provoke South Africans to start voting with their heads instead of their hearts in the next general elections. Thereafter I hope that the ANC, faced with dwindling support, can resist that old African temptation to cling to power like that calcified octogenarian across the Limpopo.
At least it is good to hear that some people have a conscience. No doubt salaries in the government sector are not as good as those in the private sector. Is this strike really about salaries or is it political?
I frequently hear the argument that “OSD has been a monumental failure”. Does this mean that OSD was not implemented at all in the health sector or simply that some or most people did not get the benefits they expected?
I work in the Department of Education as a “Deputy Chief Education Specialist” a post I have held since 1992. In all I have more than 30 years in the education sector and I also hold a masters degree in science education and an honours in Chemistry.To date I am terribly dissatisfied with the fact that I have been passed over for promotion to senior management[Director, Chief Director, Deputy DG and so on ] in favour of “comrades” (in some cases with less esperience and qualifications)
However when OSD was implemented at the end of 2009 (plus the increment promised to everyone)I experience a salary jump of R100K ; taking me from salary level 11 to a few notches above the bottom scale of salary level 12.I now get about R500K per anum.This has not made up for the promotions which I think I deserved but has at at least eased my rather tight budget.
Thanks doctor for enlightening us on the first paragraph, I thought it was everyone striking, something that our stupid media are unable to communicate to the public(I call it selective reporting).
Now to my take on the whole public strike, my brother works for the public sector and he was in downtown Joburg the other day “toyi toying” and when I called and ask him do that, he mentioned he justified it about how the government managed to bail out Eskom, how they waste money on fancy cars, and how they let corruption by their cronnies sly but are unable to pay their employees who are actually doing work on the ground.
So my thinking is before people strike they would have exhausted all avenues and they see this as their last attempt in communicating their grievances. So I am for some reason am in full support of this strike.
“With threats of murder, rape and violence.” For some reason I have a problem with this statement and I don’t believe it’s true. I am not saying you are lying, I am just saying…
OK, I’m weeping. It would come naturally to say that we are stupid to allow this type of abuse, but I don’t climb fences, walls or gates to get to work in the face of violent threats.
Once again, crime and its regulation becomes a major focus. I cannot believe how slowly we move to obtain results. The police are probably still exhausted after putting in all that extra effort during the WC. If there really is no crisis in the army, where were they when needed?
A thousand questions occur. None have answers. But our heartfelt thanks must surely go to all who have maintained their ethics and integrity over this period, some in easier conditions than others.
Why does government allow its workers to behave like pigs? And why do workers have so little respect for others? It is their own lack of respect for others that is mirrored in government’s treatment of them.
Good day Doctor, all that we are seeing is the result of a power strugle, Cosato is trying to intimidate the State for a bigger slice of the Government pye, on the other hand there are too manny comunists represented in Government trying to lead policy in the wrong direction and as in anny GOOD democracy Cosato is saying to Government you give me what I want or I will wreck
the economy. This is nothing to do with the poor people as Cosato claims, this is THEIR CULTURE at work, intimidate the masses by force, by leting patients die, denying them basic medical assistence, denying people the right to an education and so on, yet, comes election time and the ones that have been bullied out of their basic rights will again be intimidated to vote for the ANC and the Aliance. This cycle of CULTURE will repeat itself again and again. Unless someone, or a groupe of people have suficient courage to remove the core of the basic alliance from power, or the electorate vote with their heads and not with their feet and install a Democratic order hell bent on Governing for the PEOPLE this country has no future.
Its very disturbing that the police appear to be active participants in this intimidation by standing back and allowing the crimes to continue. The police are accessories to the intimidation and violence by their failure to do what police are supposed to do. South Africa is becoming a police state but only to the good guys. The bad guys can do anything they like and are left untouched.
When we hear about the exhorbitant salaries that the high ranking people get, then our sympathy is with the workers. But when we hear of these high levels of intimidation, violence and destruction our sympathy evaporate like mist before the sun.
The unions want to assure us that they are not holding the state to ransom (first with the world cup soccer, and now with the militant demands they are making), but looking at the facts insiders have shared with us, we do not believe the unions. These thugs and fearful police should summarily be thrown into jail.
We solute the doctors, medical staff and non-striking personel who are making sacrifices even at threat to their lives to remain true to their conscience and serve the public. They are the true heroes of the strike and should receive the necessary acknowledgement.
Yikes, this makes me relieved that my (German) doctor-husband opted for the US rather than S.A., even though he fell in love with Africa. I would hate him to have to try and work under such circumstances.
There have been several reports of deaths due to union actions like the intimidation of staff and the blocking of access to hospitals. As a logical consequence, union leaders should be charged as instigators to and complicit in premeditated murder! What else? Are we simply going to shrug our shoulders? Is the legal system going to turn a blind eye? Did the great Vavi himself not refer to volunteer helpers as scabs? On radio 702.
Without actively wishing it onto them, one wonders what would happen if any of these leaders would now suffer acute appendicitis or an acute heart attack or any medical emergency requiring immediate action and the private physicians called upon (no doubt) would declare solidarity with the strikers… Even more so the pickets who more probably are dependent on public health care. I am 100% convinced those elements would then use dire threats to obtain the necessary medical attention. But mortally sick outsiders are denied treatment.
As far as the unions are concerned, people dependent on state hospitals – the poor and unemployed – can be used as cannon fodder in the unions’ bid for supremacy. By challenging state authority to this extent and in the process proving their blatant disregard for the rights of non-union members, particularly the poor and unemployed, the unions also prove that their power needs to be curbed. In democratic terms, they, as the representatives of a minority, the union members, cannot prescribe to the representatives of the electorate.
Thank you for enlightening us on how difficult it has been for the clinical staff to even get in and for the role the police are playing standing by actually aiding strikers instead of people who despite appalling conditions and poor salaries still tried to do their jobs. It should be compulsory that the ruling party members HAVE to use their own hospitals when they require treatment for them or their families and perhaps we might see some changes.
The situation is totally ridiculous! The strikers have a right to strIke; why are those who wish to work not afforded the same right? Why are they not protected? It seems that the FU attitude of the Ministers et al, who drive their luxurious cars in the face of rampant poverty, has filtered down to the lesser privileged who still have jobs.
Terrorism. The right to strike is entrenched in our constitution and we all support it.
Terrorists get their way by killing or maiming innocent/defenceless people. Terrorists don’t want a situation where force is faced with force so they pick on the defenceless to achieve their goals. The strikers have a problem with goverment and broken promises, year after year. Now please tell me, what is the difference between terrorists and strikers in the current situation???
I am a nurse with extensive experience, in the apartheid and post apartheid era, the baby boomers. I have not read esoecially from the Doctors that they could not cope without the nurses. I am sure the doctors wished for all the nurses to be back, who would be their ” bedpan girls”, how nice to place your stetescopes and just give the prescription and leave, who will check the drip when you are busy in your second job in your private practice, who will monitor the ventilated patient in ICU.Doctors come out and smell the “stench”, some of you have made nurses your assistants,we have Masters degrees, we are Advanced paractitioners, but just having an MBBCH gives you a cut above the rest, the era where the Consultants are in charge of the ward, go back to the good old adys, give the ward back to the Sister -in charge.To those dedicated and compassionate nurses-”lets reclaim our profession”, we have a profession, we should never be treated as 2nd class to an Intern Doctor-what an irony?. To those dedicated Doctors, THANK YOU,remember every team player in a hospital is important, get off your pedestal, remember if the scrub sister was not there what would happen?,Get your house in order!.We are equals in our own right so are all the allied professionals and general assistants.Can you do without them.Doctors nurse the patients “please” you are there,give the wholistic care, the TLC
R500K per annum? That’s a small fortune Thandinkosi! I’ve worked for longer than you have and am very well qualified as well and I’ve just got (after a 7% increase) to R155 000 per annum. And I work for a company that is making a profit and hence benefitting its shareholders as well. Unlike the “Public Service” who’ve given SA one of the worst reputations in the world, just after the SWC. THANKS FOR NOTHING!!
Thank you for giving us insight into the siuation at the coldface.
And an ever greater thank you to the medical staff who (literally) risk life and limb to bravely and tirelessly fulfil the Hippocratic Oath they took.
If only our ‘leaders’ could acknowledge your principles and your actions and be inspired to similar actions at a time when people are growing desperately concerned…
Thank you for your report from the inside. I salute you for your integrity.
As for government and management, SAPS, COSATU and the clay-shod pointless alliance, the less said the better. Vote them out and away.
Thanks doctor for sharing your experience with us. At some stage of my life I worked for a union. I am embarrassed of what these so-called union members are behaving. They seem to think that it is OK to trample on other peoples’ rights while exercising their rights. They are behaving more like thugs than union members.
You try to paint yourself as a saint sir but you yourselves were on strike in april 2009 and we did not hear from you about how you jumped the fence to see patients.There was all silence from this quarter while his pay was adjusted upwards
Now he has the temerity to bad mouth other peoples strikes.The lowly paid sweepers kitchen staff, theater orderlies.Like you doc these guys gotta eat too. Like you they also went on strike . like oh anybody else who goes on strike. British airways pilots ground staff french dock workers South australian doctors etc etc.
Please dont tell me you did not join the doctors strike- doctors as a group withdrew their labour and as a group they will be judged.
” because all too often doctors and nurses are fingered as the guilty parties.”All too often these guys ARE the guilty party.whats good for the goose etc etc.
Why have the compassion now for patients when you had absolutely no compassion for patients when you went on strike only a year ago.
Walking a mile in another mans shoes has its good points doc( not least of which is – you will be a mile away when he discovers his shoes are missing!)
@ HAIWA TIGERE:
Please read the blog again. Nowhere in it does the writer ‘bad mouth ‘ the stike. The doc highlights the struggles that non-strikers faced, and the intimidation. The writer highlights the fact that strikers refused others their right NOT to participate. In a similar fashion, you refuse the doctor the right to be independant of choices made by his colleagues primarily in Natal in 2009.
You correctly point out that Doctors went on stike last year. You should also correctly point out that NONE of the doctors at Helen Joseph Hospital were on strike, and the hospital functioned completely normally during that period. You boldly accuse the writer of going on strike because he/she is part of greater professional group thta went on a wildcat strike. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!I
In fact, during that strike NONE of the MAJOR JHB hospitals were affected. In fact, the responsibility of this action lies at the state’s door. They have failed to design a minimum services agreement with the unions for 15 years!
A doctor or registered nurse in south africa is unhappy with his work conditions options:-1) go into private practice earn more money 2) join the mines etc 3)leave and go to australia , NZ Uk USA.
When these guys strike they dont need a picket.options galore.
A sweepers options on the other hand are rather different. There are 5 zimbabweans waiting to take his broom for half his wages and willing to work twice as long daily.No eigration to Ozzie for this dude. He needs the pickets to assure his job is secure.Pickets are known all over the world. now that south african poor are doing it oh no they should not do it.
Dont like people suffering unnecessarily but put the blame where it belongs not poor workers
@haiwa tigere
Your irreverence is upsetting. Quite clearly you missed the point of the blog.
1. At no point does he ‘bad mouth other peoples strikes’. It is merely a factual account of what transpired on the day, not meaning to denigrate the right to strike. No painting of saints either.
2. The doctors strike of 2009 was certainly a blemish on the profession as a whole. However emergency services were never withdrawn, lives were not jeopardized and colleagues were not threatened. It was brought on by junior doctors whose working conditions are abhorrent and salaries totally out of line. And yes, aside from the junior doctors, most senior clinical staff did not strike. Fact.
I was at Helen Joseph on the first day of the strike. The wards were eerie. It was deserted. Patients that had been operated on the night before were without any pain medication, all drips had run dry and some were backflowing, antibiotics were not administered. Those that were too infirm just lay there in their own excrement. Where’s the dignity? Those were the true victims – not the government. They have no voice.
I found a doctor seeing his patients with a hockey stick at his side – he had to fend off a few unionists on his way in. Later on in the week I caught another doctor transporting his patients down to Rahima Moosa in his own car for their scans. These are the everyday unsung heroes. Try walking a day in their shoes
Haiwa, how do you know that the writer of this article was on strike last year?
Anyway, some people do learn from their mistakes!
Fokken Hel.
@ Irate
I am not in the health sector but the education sector.Nonetheless I FOUND IT HARD TO BELIEVE the doctor that “Occupation Specific Dispensation has been a monumental failure”.Maybe that is true in the health sector .However in the education sector long serving employees (like me with 30 years experience)benefited tremendously form OSD.{As indicated previously I presently earn R500K per anum from the DoE and I am now set to get R538K pa after the wage agreements)
By the same token I FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE that a highly skilled graduate (which you presumably are) with more than 30 years experience (you claim to have worked longer than I have) can earn a mere R155K per anum!Of course this can happen if you are not really interested in money but derive intrinsic satisfaction from your job!( Money is not everything after all)
Incidentally I was a very good science teacher before I got promoted to management with much better pay . I am not sure though if I enjoy management as I used to enjoy teaching!( I do teach as a sideline over weekends though but that is another story!)
@ Cass”South Africa’s health minister Barbara Hogan says a woman has died in childbirth because of a strike by public health doctors at 26 hospitals, which is entering its third week. She now has asked the military to send doctors to help out in the crisis.”http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/271489
The woman the then Minister of health is talking about would humbly disagree. “lives were not jeopardized” is rather pathetic under the ciscumstances.
NOW GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT. In fact the writer is saying my strike is better than your strike.
The whole point of a strike is to paralyse the industry so that resolution is reached quickly.I was caught up in a french strike once I should know.What I am saying is pickets are a ligitimate in a strike. Its the way things are.Doctors chose not to have pickets because they have options but the fact remains they went on strike. and caused a death.Somebody goofed but its not these workers who are demanding a fair wage.
And cass as for reverenceas soon as this doctor starts dishing some out to his co workers i.e cleaners orderlies and walk in their shoes man does not deserve ANY reverence.
While I respect the right of workers to strike, I certainly cannot condone them effectively taking people hostage. The definition of a strike is as follows “Strike action is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work.” What happened at Helen Joseph was more than a strike. It was not just a mass refusal of employees to work, but involved stopping others from working, and barricading a hospital using violence and intimidation. This is no different to an armed gunman taking patients and doctors at a hospital hostage in order to get his way and should have been met with a much stronger response from police and government.
To those doctors and nurses who showed they take their vows seriously, thank you and God bless you.
@ T. Sibisi
Ih Health , the OSD has been a CATASTROPHIC failure.It has only benefitted the extremes i. e.: the interns and the HODS. Thats because the strike in 2009 was driven primarily by junior doctors who failed to realise that they are only interns for 2 years. As a senior specialist, I earn R1500 a month more than a community service medical officer. I have 15 years of experience more than that group of doctors.
The way the OSD is legislated in health means that POSTS need to be available for you to climb in the salary scale. If the post does not exist, you will remain on your current level till your boss dies. In order for posts to be created, there must be a budget…and all provincial hospitals are over budget by default.
So while things may look good on paper, it has not translated on to the salary slips.
I agree with ” state doc”, I am a nurse, an academic,I will teach the Intern MBBCH doctor, anyday, anyway-we the experienced nurses teach them in the wards,as their Registrars and consultants are not with them 24 out of 24,Does anybody care that we are there 24 out of 24, you take us for granted!. Interns(MBBCH)1st year, take home +-R25,000per month for their long hours for their Internship(Experience Ziltz)
anyway I take home +-R13,000 PER MONTH.
Human Resource the “the human R” , has worked out time per staff per patient, which does not suit the public healths system, there is fluctution in patient attendance AND then…What, short staffing, no hand towels, no soap no linen,trolleys without cushions-consistenly, regularly- whose fault- ‘BLAME THE NURSES”- WHO ELSE TO TAKE THE RAP – FOR THOSE MANAGERS, DIRECTORS WHO WISH TO BE BLIND-Same story-boring. Lets Take care of our own, our families , the poor, the community -help , be the helper- resources pleaasee.Save the nation as disease and death is the order of the day.RANK AND STATUS AND WHAT IS IN FOR ME!!! is the talk.Lead the way health profession.Remember without a teacher you could not be the doctor or the nurse.Each one introspect within yourself, and be the change that you want to see.Stop pointing fingers,It is SOS time, the rich versus the poor, the historically advantaged versus the historically disadvantaged.God bless our people.