Hospital cleaners complain of ‘disrespect’

Theresia Tjihenuna

CLEANERS at the Windhoek Central Hospital say the level of disrespect by senior staff towards cleaners at the hospital has left them feeling inferior compared to other employees.

“Are we not all here for the good of the patients we serve?” asks one of the cleaners, Francine Djuulume (53) who claims their supervisor and chief clerk for domestic services, Peters Louw, has been treating them like second-class citizens. Her sentiment is shared by her colleagues at work. Djuulume claims Louw made a ‘degrading’ comment that did not sit well with herself and her colleagues.

“After a meeting between him (Louw) and nursing staff earlier in the month, we had received feedback from our colleagues that it was decided that we (cleaners) are to stay clear of the kitchens because we smell of faeces,” Djuulume said. She expressed passion for her job but says such comments are demotivating.

Djuulume says part of her job is scrubbing the toilets in the different wards of the hospital, mostly used by patients, and she believes that the comment was discriminatory, humiliating and degrading. She added that cleaners at the hospital are often treated like they are of less value compared to their colleagues.

“We are made to feel like we are dirt. I understand that we are not allowed anywhere near the kitchens, but to say it is because we smell and work with faeces is very disrespectful,” Djuulume vented.

Another cleaner, 51-year-old Cecilia Mbaeva says she is treated as less important than her colleagues who are not cleaners. “Why should there be a distinction between ourselves and our other colleagues when we all clean up after the patients?” asks Mbaeva.

Mbaeva says all she wants is to feel appreciated and treated equally to her colleagues in other departments of the hospital. She says such comments by senior staff encourage disunity among staff.

“To say that we cleaners should not come anywhere near the kitchen because we smell is not the kind of treatment we expected to get years after our country’s independence,” she said.

Another cleaner, who asked to remain anonymous made reference to the hospital’s main kitchen where the drain has been clogged for months.

“They [management] talk about cleanliness but the blockage of the kitchen’s drain remained unchecked for months and the water is causing a foul-smell and very unhygienic,” she complained.

The Namibian can confirm that the hospital’s main kitchen has been clogged for months and the water at the kitchen’s drain lies openly at the kitchen entrance.

“This is the area where the hospital’s food is prepared and yet there is a clogged drain attracting diseases that nobody cares about fixing,” she said.

Louw dismissed the accusations made by the cleaners saying that as per rules of the hospital, cleaners are not permitted in the kitchens.

“Those are the rules, but I never made such a comment and I refuse to comment on this subject any further,” he said. Louw refused to comment on the drain-blockage at the hospital’s kitchen.