Western Cape health services affected by taxi strike

CAPE TOWN - There can be no health services without any staff according to Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo.

READ: Taxi chaos | Cape Town commuters scramble for transport

She was commenting on the impact the taxi strike has had on the healthcare system.

Mbombo says many nurses and other health workers have either been unable to come to work, or to leave due to the protest.

Mbombo said, "so the main thing is about the staff shortages. Here at Mowbray, for example, we have more than 20 nurses who have been unable to come to work."

"Even those that are at work, some of them end up sleeping here. At Mowbray, they don't have a nurse's home. Luckily in New Somerset, at Tygerberg they do have the nurse's home where people can sleep on a bed. Here it's about where you convert a room like a hall dormitory and then you put all the mattresses and all of those." 

She said staff sometimes work over 12 hour shifts and are still grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.