No care, no empathy

State patients from around the country have been complaining about a lack of compassion and care from nurses in clinics and hospitals. Many of the nursing staff are doing their best to care for patients but others are reportedly showing a disturbing lack of compassion for the sick. A patient visited the state hospital at Opuwo in the Kunene Region at around 20:00 on a Friday evening because she felt ill. She was discharged around 01:00 because she was only attended to around 00:00. In July this year, Ndahafa Simeon of Havana was visiting her brother who has tuberculosis (TB) and is in the TB ward at Katutura Hospital. Her ailing brother is weak and frail and she discovered he was not taking the medication left at his bed by the nurses. “He throws away the medicine or shoves it under the mattress if I am not around to force him to take it. The nurses just leave the medicine there, instead of ensuring that he takes it. “I feed my brother and wash him because it’s not easy for him to get up and do things for himself. I feel that if I am not there, I cannot rely on the hospital nurses to cater to his basic needs,” said Simeon. Over the course of the month, local newspapers have been inundated with calls for Health Minister Bernard Haufiku to visit health facilities around the country, made by angry patients who have visited these facilities for medical attention. The common view of some the distressed patients is that the attitude of the nurses is that patients have to wait. Nurses have more important things to do. Patients who speak out are treated rudely, and at a snail’s pace and it appears as though patients irritate nurses. “The Minister should probe the conduct of nurses, what is the code of ethics for nursing staff anyways? We are tired of visiting government health facilities and being treated like uninvited guests in someone’s home, because that is exactly how most of the nursing staff behave in government hospital facilities. “We don’t know, maybe the nurses are overworked, tired and underpaid but that is not our problem, we go to hospitals with our own problems which are in most cases a matter of life and death,” complained a patient who wished to remain anonymous. “Minister of Health please visit the Okahandja clinic and see how the nurses are giving poor services to patients. They come to work late from lunch and some even start at 16:00,” said another. “Minister of Health please visit the Walvis Bay hospital and see for yourself how the nurses are mistreating patients. The service is poor, they are always busy on their cell phones while on duty and they ignore the poor sick patients who came to seek attention from them,” complained yet another. Minister Haufiku who recently toured government health facilities around the country, said he observed that staff at health facilities have a negative attitude towards their work and patients. He attributed that to the fact the hospitals are understaffed. He said he has been to 90% of the country’s health facilities and the situation is the same everywhere. “The situation is the same everywhere and it has been that way for years. Two days ago I visited the hospital in Oshikuku and experienced the negativity of a hospital staff [member] first hand. This guy didn’t know I was the minister and I approached him to enquire something and his attitude was totally off,” said Haufiku. He added that his ministry is busy with a restructuring process but added that it should be understood that change cannot be achieved overnight. “We are busy with restructuring, from doctors to nurses, clerks and drivers. We will ensure that there is no overworking of hospital staff. We will also add new, trained nurses. It won’t be cheap, but it is necessary. The message to all should be clear that we expect good integrity and the right attitude,” said Haufiku. WINDHOEK KAKUNAWA SHINANA