Princess Marina health care assistants threaten tools down
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday July 31, 2023 06:00
Also known as health care assistants, the workers complain that the hospital stopped paying them night shift allowance since September 2022 without consultation.
They added that they work tirelessly, assisting doctors, nurses and anaethetists on night duty only for them not to be paid their allowances.
They also said drivers, hospital orderlies, mortuary attendants and all other hospital staff are on the other hand paid night shift while they are left out. “Nurses are bought uniforms.
Even the drivers are provided with uniforms but we wear old tattered uniforms that we bought for ourselves. Marina is also failing to provide us with accommodation. People from other organisations occupy the flats opposite PMH, which are supposed to be occupied by Marina workers. Health workers who were given these houses left but they refuse to vacate the houses. Retired officers and dismissed officers are refusing to vacate the houses but our bosses are quiet about it,” they said.
Furthermore,they also said accommodation at both Extension 10 and Block 9 flats were dilapidated but Marina was failing to fix them. They said more than 15 houses were vacant adding that it seemed like housing committee cared less about those issues. Furthermore, they cried that they had been in stagnant salary scales for years saying that their employer was not promoting them citing financial constraints.
Health care assistants also pointed out that a directive was released in 2012 that they should be promoted from a minimum entry of B4 (Health Care Assistant) to C2 (Principal Health Care Assistant). They said their employer’s delay in promoting them led to overcrowding in the B2 scale.
“We are depressed as hospital workers but we work with patients on daily basis. This situation leads to many health workers taking their frustrations out on patients. Nurses are also failing to do their duties. We are made to do jobs that are not ours but when things go bad we are left to answer for those mistakes alone. We are in hospital to assist nurses not to do their duties! We are made to deliver human species and it is not our job. To make matters worse, we are made to deliver them on foot,” they said.
They added that when body parts disappear, they are forced to write endless letters because nurses refuse to do their duty and therefore the blame is shifted to them because they are juniors. The other grievance they raised was that their employer refuses to train them and therefore hindering professional growth. They explained that their fear was that if they left their jobs to go further their studies, with the lack of employment, they might struggle finding other jobs because their market is flooded. They however pointed out that if their cries are not addressed by next month, they will down their tools.
Responding to this publication about the above mentioned issues, MoH spokesperson Christopher Nyanga said the ministry was not aware of any allowances being owed to Health Care Assistants as alleged, nor had it received any letters of complaints on the same. He added that all Ministry staff entitled to uniform was given allowances due to them as necessary.
“The ministry is not aware of any retired or former employees who are still occupying Government houses at Princess Marina Hospital as alleged. Contrary to the allegations made, it is only MoH officials occupying staff houses at Princess Marina Hospital and not those from other departments. These include some Health Care Assistants working at the hospital,” he said.
He further explained that no staff member including health care assistants was being forced to deliver specimen or medical supplies for that matter, at PMH or at any MoH facility. Nyanga also said the ministry management and leadership were always available to meet any staff member wishing for a meeting, upon request, to address any issue that may be a concern.