By Kefiloe Kajane
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) has expressed concern at the dismissal of 345 nurses at Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital, known as Tṧepong, last week.
In a statement released today, DENOSA said the dismissal of 345 nurses at Tṧepong as Lesotho’s only tertiary facility will put more strain on South Africa’s nurses and the already overstretched healthcare system.
DENOSA said it is extremely concerned at the reckless manner in which Tṧepong Group dismissed 345 nurses, mostly specialist nurses, warning it is likely to put more strain on the already overstretched South African healthcare facilities in provinces that border Lesotho.
DENOSA further pointed out that what is more disappointing is that the dismissal of the highest qualified nurses in Lesotho is over a mere complaint about the salary discrepancies that is applied at the institution; nurses with the same skills set and number of years of experience doing the same work are earning different salaries at the institution.
“Their sin is for demanding a remuneration structure at the institution. Only five percent nurses remain at the institution, and key service units such as Casualty, ICU and Neonatal ICU are without nurses.
“DENOSA calls on the government of Lesotho to not allow the whole citizenry of Lesotho to suffer due to poor labour-relations management by Tṧepong Group (which is a management group of the hospital). The self-righteous behaviour by Tṧepong will only bring disaster and more suffering to the people of Lesotho because those who can’t afford to come to South Africa for care will either die at home or will die in facilities due to no capacity to care for them as they will be needing high care,” the statement indicates.
