South African doctors on duty live in fear of criminals entering hospitals

Since 2018 a high number of doctors have survived rape and other assaults in various hospitals around the country.

Itumeleng Mafisa

JOHANNESBURG, October 1 (ANA) – Medical doctors in South Africa say they are sick and tired of being sitting ducks for criminals who come and attack them in hospitals while having to stress about the Covid 19 pandemic at the same time.

The doctors said this week they were constantly living in fear working for public health-care centres because there was no adequate security.

There is currently a ratio of 500 patients to one doctor in South Africa, indicating a shortage of personnel.

The doctors represented by the SA Medical Association (Sama) held a media briefing on Thursday in which they detailed some of the attacks which have taken place since 2018.

Sama chairperson in Gauteng province Dr Mark Human said doctors had been complaining about security for a number of years.

Since 2018 doctors had survived rapes and assaults in various hospitals around the country. In some instances Sama would meet the department and security would be enforced, Human said.

He added that there were other cases where doctors were stabbed and almost killed.

“While the country heads for local government elections in November, Sama is concerned that security issues faced by doctors falls under the radar and it is for this reason that Sama continues to highlight the issues of security and continues to push both national and provincial government to increase their levels of security at these public institutions.” Human said.

Some doctors said the situation was worse in townships such as Soweto where a doctor was recently beaten by a patient.

The doctors said they worked long hours and sometimes had to walk around hospitals in the dark. In some instances hospitals’ security cameras or metal detectors were not working.

“We need highly trained security who know how to handle hospital situations and medical situations to prevent that crime,“ Dr Akhtar Hussain said.

“We have seen more than 2 million crimes happening. It’s time for the department of health to take action.”

Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa acknowledged that there were some health-care workers who were rude to patients but said these were a small minority.

He said rather than beat up the doctor or nurse in question, patients who were aggrieved should contact senior officials of the hospital.

“Generally townships are a hot spot for this type of security risk. In bigger townships like Soweto, Umlazi and all these bigger townships we do get serious challenges there,“ he said.

“There are those few health-care workers with a very bad attitude towards patients but we are talking about very few numbers. That also cannot be use that to use violence against health-care workers.”

The doctors said in cases where health workers were rude it should be considered that in some instances doctors treated a high number of patients at a time. Some of them worked long hours or double shifts.

They said the situation was so bad that in some instances gangsters would come and fight in the hospital. They also had little faith in unarmed security officials.

“The issue is our guards who are not armed. There is no proper training that is tailor-made for health-care institutions, the training that is done is just done like you are training for a supermarket,“ one said.

The doctors have asked for tighter security and armed security on hospital grounds. They have also asked for boom gates and other stricter security measures to be put in place.

The Star