Patients had to wait for over two hours at Mankayane Government Hospital while one nurse who was on duty at the facility’s emergency room had to attend to victims who had been involved in a bus accident.
This happened after 6pm on Saturday when the bus under the style name Mfolozi had an accident. The bus, according to its owner and driver Zwakele Nkumane, burst one of its front tyres and it tipped on its side while it was about 500 metres from the Mankayane Bus Rank. Aboard were four passengers, as confirmed by Chief Police Information and Communications Officer, Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati and Eswatini National Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services (ENFRES) Public Relations Officer (PRO) Mandla Dlamini.
After the five victims of the accident, including the driver, were rushed to the Mankayane Government Hospital, sources said patients who had been queuing for assistance and those who were being attended to had to be abandoned by the only nurse who was on duty.
They had to wait for about two hours more while the accident survivors were being assessed by the nurse.
Sources said there was only one nurse attending to patients who went to the hospital through the casualty ward (emergency room). This, they said, was due to the persistent shortage of healthcare workers.
“Some of the patients who had to be abandoned by the nurse were those who were referred from the outpatient department (OPD) at 4pm. The OPD does not operate for 24 hours, so patients were referred to the workers on night shift.
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The casualty department becomes open to all patients, including emergencies from 5pm, so in cases of emergencies, a healthcare is forced to prioritise cases according to their urgency,” said a source.
It was reported that while the nurse was running around looking for some supplies such as strapping from other departments within the hospital, all the patients, including the accident victims, were left alone in the ward.
This disgruntled some patients who felt that the nurse was not doing enough to quickly attend to them.
“While the nurse attended to the accident victims, he had to also assure the other patients who also needed medical assistance that he will attend to them soon. It was chaotic, more so because the ENFRES personnel who first brought two victims, said they will bring more,” a source claimed.
A doctor who was on-call and a radiographer were reportedly roped in to assist the nurse.
“Fortunately, the accident survivors sustained minor injuries and were assessed, threated and discharged the same evening. However, it makes one wonder what would have happened if the injuries were severe. The shortage of healthcare workers was reported to the ministry of health numerous times, but nothing has been done so far,” stated a source.
Insiders said ordinarily, the casualty department needs to have at least three nurses just in cases of emergencies. They said when the issue started, only two nurses were available per shift; two for morning and another two for night shift. However, as the situation worsened, only one nurse was availed per shift.
Early last month, the Mankayane Government Hospital workers resolved to downscale services by attending to only emergencies after 5pm due to the shortage of human resource. However, insiders said the healthcare workers, out of compassion for the desperate Emaswati, had been attending to all patients who arrived at the casualty department after pm, depending on the availability of medical supplies and drugs required by their ailments.
They said they had also tried allowing all patients into the hospital premises, instead of attending to only 20 at a time.
“We did this for two days, but realised that the 20-patients system was better because our patients grew impatient and barged into the consultation room when they felt that the available staff were not attending to other patients quick enough,” stated a source.
Previously, the ministry of health said it had been granted permission to employ more healthcare workers. Ministry of Health Communications Officer, Nsindiso Tsabedze, was asked about progress of the recruitment process and the situation at the Mankayane Government Hospital.
“I will have to consult with the hospital’s authorities on the said incident and also engage other officers on the recruitment process. However, I can only do this tomorrow (today),” he said.
However, Minister of Health Mduduzi Matsebula, in the ministry’s first quarter performance report, said the launch of the Human Resource for Health (HRH) Strategy 2025-2030 marked a critical milestone, accompanied by approval to fill 92 out of 480 declared vacancies.
Even so, he said after this approval still left a deficit of 388 critical posts, exacerbating service delivery bottlenecks across medical, nursing, pharmaceutical, and administrative cadres.
“Strategic investments in the health workforce remain paramount. During the quarter, net staffing levels had declined, with only 38 new recruits against 25 exits.” Matsebula said training efforts also remained sub-optimal due to budgetary constraints.
Despite this, wellness programmes reached over 470 staff through psychosocial support and team building. Operational barriers-including office space shortages, underfunded recruitment, and dependency on donor funded posts-continue to undermine workforce optimisation.
Nonetheless, the minister said the human resource unit remained committed to strategic workforce development, guided by evidence-based planning and results-focused investments.
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