By Emma Kakololo
WINDHOEK
All hell broke loose at the Katutura Clinic yesterday at around 5 pm when angry patients got fed up with what they called “nurses’ laziness and coldness towards the sick”.
This turned into a verbal wrangle with nurses that even the Permanent Secretary, Simon Kahuure, had to be called in to control the angry protestors. When New Era arrived at the scene, Kahuure had already left.
However, some patients were still fuming with anger.
According to one patient, Meroline Herunga the nurses went for lunch at 1 pm only to come back at 3 pm instead of 2 pm. What angered them even more, she said, was the fact that the nurses continued to “chit chat” for more than an hour instead of attending to the patients.
“They came here at 3 pm, sat, doing nothing only to chit chat. Only when we started to complain, they jumped up to do their work,” said Herunga.
The children’s section was fully packed, despite that most of the parents arrived at the clinic in the morning hours.
“I have been sitting here since 6 am and now they want to close and go home,” said Pauline Slinder who brought in her four-month-old daughter.
“What must we do now? My child is very sick I cannot take her home like this. What if she dies? If they (nurses) cannot answer this, President Hifi-kepunye Pohamba must come and answer this,” she demanded.
“My baby’s temperature is 39.2 degrees Celsius and all they gave her was Panado and she has been crying the whole day. You can see she is still in pain, but no help,” she said pointing at the child’s temperature chart.
“They (nurses) don’t treat us humanely. Our children are hungry, vomiting and they don’t care,” said another mother, Nakatis Swartbooi, whose child’s temperature was also soaring.
Kahuure could not be reached for comment by the time of going to press.