Nurses in Swaziland
(eSwatini) plan to march on the Ministry of Health to protest at the lack of
protective clothing and other equipment to tackle the coronavirus crisis.
Swaziland Democratic Nurses
Union President Bheki Mamba said the kingdom had minimal
items in health facilities. He said
even the little protective clothing available was old and was left over from
the novel influenza A (H1N1) virus outbreak in 2009.
Mamba accused the Swazi
Government of not telling the truth about the level of supplies available.
Nurses intend to march on Tuesday (17 March 2020).
Nurses intend to march on Tuesday (17 March 2020).
Swaziland has only one confirmed case
of coronavirus as of 16 March 2020. Two centres are being prepared to be used
to quarantine patients as the virus spreads. The known case is at Lubombo
Referral Hospital.
Mamba said protective
clothing was not available for all staff at the hospital.
Even before coronavirus
struck Swaziland’s public health service was in meltdown. The government which
is not elected but handpicked by absolute monarch King Mswati III had run the
economy into the ground. Medicine and equipment was in short supply because
bills to suppliers had been left unpaid.
Following a visit to
Swaziland in early 2019 the
World Health Organisation (WHO) reported there were not
enough doctors, nurses and support staff. Its report
stated, ‘The country has inadequate health workforce in both
numbers and skills. The distribution of health workforce is also skewed in
favour of urban areas with some rural health facilities having staffing gaps.
Other health workforce challenges include; retention of skilled staff due to
frequent rotation of workers especially nurses; and government absorption of
donor funded positions.’
WHO added, ‘The distribution of health facilities and
access to essential health services create inequities between rural and urban
populations.’
Prior to the WHO visit
there were
reports of deaths caused by lack
of medicines. At least three patients using the Nhlangano Health
Centre were said to have died because they could not get drugs to control their
blood pressure.
There have been reports across Swaziland that hospitals
cannot afford to feed patients and vital medicines have
run out.
In December 2018 the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the
Mbabane Government Hospital was
reported to be close to shut-down because equipment was
not being maintained. People were dying because of this, it was reported.
In September 2018 it was reported at least six
children in Swaziland had died from diarrhoea and many more
were sick because the government was broke and could not pay for vaccines. It
would cost US$6 for the vaccine to immunise a child.
In June 2018 it was revealed there were only
12 working public ambulances in the whole of
Swaziland because the government failed to maintain them. It had bought no new
ambulances since 2013.
See also
Swaziland
health crisis getting worse as budgets cut. Rural areas most affected
More
deaths in Swaziland as government fails to pay medicine suppliers
Report:
patients die as Swaziland government hospital runs out of cash
Medicine
shortage: five die
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2017/06/medicine-shortage-five-die.html
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