OVERWORKED AND UNDERPAID
Demoralised Health Care Assistants at Princess Marina Hospital are threatening to strike if their employer does not listen to their complaints and attend to them this month.
According to an anonymous source, HCAs at Princess Marina Hospital perform duties that they are not hired to do such as delivering specimen to the national health laboratory on foot.
Delivering these specimen is a job that is not a core duty in their contracts but is something that lands some HCAs in hot water, as they have to account for kidneys and penises that have gone missing in the ENT/mini lab.
The said negligence by nurses and hospital officials is said to be putting the government at risk of being sued for millions of Pula. Moreover, it is alleged that two HCA staff members have died whilst delivering specimen on foot to the National Health Lab as they were hit by cars.
The hospital is said to have distanced itself from the incidents, noting that it is not in HCAs’ job description to deliver specimen to the national health laboratory.
“Re mo mathateng, re bereka ka fa tlase ga bokgokgontshi,” the anonymous source said when quizzed about the working conditions of HCA at Princess Marina Hospital.
It is also alleged that HCAs are ordered to conduct referrals of patients to other hospitals, an act which they say puts the lives of patients at risk because if they need immediate medical attention on the way, the HCA cannot offer any help as they are not nurses.
They have not been paid their night shift allowances since September 2022 but continue to work tirelessly to serve hospital patients in-spite of their circumstances.
HCAs further complain that they are not offered any housing even though they are supposed to get accommodation. The houses that are reserved for them are occupied by retired public service officials who refuse to move.
Furthermore, some houses have outstanding water bills that run to up to P20 000 which makes it hard for anyone to move in as the bills are not yet cleared. The few that are fortunate enough to get accommodation end up in dilapidated houses that were last maintained years ago.
HCAs are said to be on B2/3 scale and inability to access work accommodation means they have to rent out and spend their meagre salaries on rental.
They do not get uniform allowance, and they are the only people working in hospitals that do not have a uniform hence they wear whatever they can afford.
Moreover, it is said that HCAs are deprived of the opportunity to further their studies by their employer and as a result remain in the same level/position for years on end.
HCAs at Marina hospital are thus said to be demoralised as they do not get all the money they work for and they feel helpless to face their employer.
According to Botswana Land Boards Local Authorities and Health Workers Union Secretary General, Ketlhalefile Motshegwa the Ministry of Health has not responded to a number of issues that they have brought to them pertaining to health workers.
Motshegwa warned that the lax response of the government may lead to low productivity, which would breed poor service delivery and lead to Batswana suffering.
Motshegwa revealed that the union has just won a case for uniform allowance of HCA workers and they will soon get their money. He urged top government officials to do things by the book as taking issues to court only leads to government losing money.
Princess Marina Hospital had not responded to The Midweek Sun enquiry at the time of going to press, despite countless times of seeking answers.