Nurses at the Maternity Ward of the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Thursday said they had stopped doing “hands-on work” until a situation where chunks of concrete roof are crashing through the ceiling is resolved
One of the nurses told iWitness News that the situation developed about two weeks ago in the area of the concrete roof.
“About two weeks or so ago, the roof fell in, and it’s a concrete roofing, and this piece of debris came through the ceiling,” a nurse told iWitness News, speaking on behalf of her colleagues.
The nurse said that the situation was reported to the administrative, personnel and maintenance departments of the hospital.
However, the situation deteriorated on Wednesday night when the nurses on call heard a crashing sound in the ward.
When they went to check, they saw that a pointed piece of concrete had pierced through the ceiling and was dangling from the roof.
The incident occurred just outside a delivery room, which a nurse was preparing in the event of an emergency delivery.
The nurse told iWitness News that water is coming through the roof of delivery rooms 1, 2, and 3, and this sometimes happens during deliveries.
“But also we are talking about mould,” the nurse said, adding that the issues have been reported several times.
“Even on Mat B, we’re talking about the heat that is there; not only heat, but the mixing of patients, because you have newborn babies and you don’t want mixing of patients,” the nurse said.
“We have been complaining about this for quite a few weeks now. So we’re now going to take a stand to show us, health workers, we should know better, do better. It’s a high-risk area, and we have to protect not only ourselves, but our patients and these newborn babies,” the nurse told iWitness News.
“Right now, the morning shift and night shift, we are no longer doing hands-on work until something is done to the situation. Currently, there are two patients on Mat A, and we’re looking out for their safety.”
She noted that this is the ward on which patients in labour or others who are not in labour but admitted for gynaecological cases relating to pregnancy are housed.
The nurse told iWitness News that they will not be doing any hands-on work “until there’s a change to the situation.
“All we need is a ward that is safe for our practice, safe for babies and mothers,” the nurse said.