BONU demands closure of Lesirane maternity wing
Botswana Nurses Union (BONU) has demanded the closure of Lesirane Clinic Maternity Unit as it poses danger to patients and staff.
The union Secretary General, Lebogang Phillip stated in a letter to the Coordinator of Greater Gaborone DHMT that the union has regrettably noticed a pathetic and disheartening situation occurring at Lesirane Clinic (Maternity Unit). He said the clinic is a busy 24-hour clinic and regrettably is only staffed with nine (9) Midwives which is way below standard requirement of a 24-hour clinic minimum of 16 Midwives.
According to Phillip, the nurses work one-nurse per shift in a three-typed shift; morning, sfternoon and night shift. The clinic, he said, is busy such that nurses work eight night duties per each month instead of four night duties per month.
“The clinic is also busy such that it has an average of seven deliveries per day more than most primary hospitals or district hospitals and an average of 240 deliveries quarterly. It also has average of 11 BBA's per month and 30 referrals per month.
“It is therefore a substandard on the part of the government to operate a facility of that nature with such number of nurses. Nurses are prone to mistakes leading to professional misconducts and scandals due to fatigue and exhaustion,” Phillip explained in the letter.
He revealed that the community of Lesirane is not safe at the clinic because of the prevailing chaos, there are currently incidents of nurses being overwhelmed by patients while on duty in the sense that one nurse cannot attend to two patients for deliveries at a time or make an emergency referral while the other patient is delivering.
He argued that this has exposed “our members to public litigation because very soon any incident may occur should the situation remain the same.”
According to the Secretary General, the clinic is short of delivery packs as patients are now being referred to other clinics in Gaborone. The delivery pack is the main equipment used in deliveries and it is a substandard for a
clinic to operate with shortage of such equipment.
He added that patients who come in Active Labour and are subjected to self-referrals as it is the norm are likely to encounter complications and at the end of the day the nurses are liable for such complications.
“It is the position of the union that considering the situation at Lesirane Clinic-Maternity Wing, it must be temporarily closed until such a time there is enough staff and maternity equipment to operate the clinic. The situation is exposing nurses and patients (community) to irreparable danger,” Phillip said.
He added that the union has a right to protect its members to decent work and the customers who in this case are patients.