Netcare, a private healthcare provider, again warned against the shortage of nurses and has called for the government to urgently address the situation.
In its 2022 integrated report, the group said the critical shortage of nurses, coupled with the low output from nursing education institutions, must be urgently addressed to meet current and future healthcare demand.
According to Netcare, there was a current shortage of between 26 000 and 62 000 nurses in SA, both public and private, with the gap expected to grow to between 131 000 and 166 000 by 20301.
"SA’s Human Resources for Health Strategy for 2030 predicts a shortage of around 34 000 registered nurses in primary healthcare by 2025.
"The supply-demand mismatch is driven primarily by increased demand from population growth, an ageing population, the growing disease burden, and nurse retirements and emigration outpacing the supply of new nurses," it said.
Netcare said, in 2021, there were approximately 58% fewer nursing students in SA than in 2012.
The group said there was a critical shortage of nursing skills in the wake of the high stress of the pandemic, and many qualified personnel – particularly nurses were choosing to change careers.
"Further, healthcare systems around the world are facing record post-pandemic backlogs, driving an insatiable demand for healthcare professionals with many South African doctors and nurses electing to emigrate," the group said.
Netcare said power outages were also impacting nurse retention, as nursing staff now prefer to work close to home, to make childcare and housework easier within load-shedding schedules.
"The doctor-to-population ratio in SA is on the decrease with contributing factors being the country’s limited capacity to train doctors (private medical schools are prohibited), an ageing specialist population, the escalating cost of professional liability insurance for specialists, emigration, and uncertainty around the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI)," the group said.
Meanwhile, last month, Netcare MD Jacques du Plessis told investors during the presentation of the group's financials that Netcare used to train thousands of nurses each year, but as it awaits accreditation, it had to reject applicants and cut the number of nurses it trains.
In 2017, Netcare Education trained approximately 3 000 nurses, and now they train fewer.
"Today, we are training around 1 000; adversely impacted by the South African Nursing Council’s (SANC) lengthy process to phase out legacy nursing qualifications and its restrictions on student intake numbers for the new nursing qualifications," the group said.
Netcare said in the 2022 financial year, only 21% of the student intake it applied for was approved by SANC.
Netcare board chair Thevendrie Brewer said the deepening shortage of nurses is obviously most critical for Netcare.
"Regulatory intransigence still prevents us from training enough new nurses to provide compassionate, evidence-based care to more South Africans.
"I cannot overstress the urgent need for collaboration between government and the private health sector to remove the blockages to a strong pipeline of healthcare skills. The private healthcare sector continues to engage the Department of Health in this regard," she said.
Brewer said Netcare's efforts to expand healthcare access require the government to be amenable to exploring partnering models with the private sector.
"In addition to the private sector’s ability and aspiration to alleviate the shortage of nurses, the excess capacity in the private sector, which includes fully functional hospitals available for sale, can be utilised for public sector patients. The proviso is that a mutually beneficial business model can be agreed on," she said.
Looking ahead, the group said its key objectives for the 2023 financial year are to continue to monitor key strategic initiatives and the delivery of new business areas, and to continue to oversee the group’s efforts to address the shortage of nurses and critical skills in the healthcare sector.
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