Durban – An instruction that nurses are to be subjected to exit interviews before they leave the KwaZulu-Natal health department was on Wednesday criticised by the Democratic Alliance as a measure that had been implemented far too late.
“KZN Health MEC, Sibongiseni Dhlomo’s wails about the high number of critical health professionals leaving the department — and an instruction that exit interviews are conducted to establish the cause thereof and attempt to curb it — are a classic case of too little too late,” DA’s health spokesman Dr Imran Keeka said.
On Tuesday, the department’s spokesman Desmond Motha issued a statement and said that provincial hospital and clinic managers had been told to interview staff members who resign in a bid to learn why there was an “exodus” of nurses.
According to the statement, Dhlomo was concerned at the loss of experienced nursing staff, especially midwives, neonatal and theatre nurses.
“That the MEC has only woken up to this fact now is a sign that he and his department are completely out of touch with reality,” said Keeka.
Keeka said that staff were faced with poor working conditions, long hours, poor pay and “massive victimisation at several levels”. This was compounded, he said, by a shortage of medicines, infrastructure and equipment.
Staff, he said, were also exploiting a loophole to get as much out of their pensions as possible by resigning.
“And then there is the matter of an MEC who wears rose-coloured spectacles, praising himself and his department despite the many flaws that still exist. The MEC should have been listening to his staff a long time ago. But the reality is that unless there are drastic changes health professionals will continue to leave in their droves,” he said.
African News Agency