Durban - The Young Nurses Indaba Trade Union took to the streets of Johannesburg to highlight the plight of nurses in South Africa.
The union handed over a memorandum to the National Department of Health on Wednesday.
Union president Mfanelo Sicina said healthcare workers had proven beyond reasonable doubt that they are the backbone of the healthcare system.
He said the pandemic had shown the whole world that without healthcare workers, the country is doomed.
Sicina said the country had seen them work day and night, toiling in all seasons striving to keep the nation healthy. He said the whole world had seen them giving their utmost best they could, against all the odds.
Sicina said in the midst of all those struggles and sacrifices, nurses are still excluded economically, and they are sentenced to permanent poverty and career stagnation by the South African Nursing Council (Sanc) and Council on Higher Education (Che).
The union demands the following:
1. Increased budget and an end to austerity measures in the healthcare sector
Underfunded healthcare facilities had proven to be a fortress of danger and death because they are forced to produce poor nursing and medical care for the citizens of this country.
2. Employ permanently all Covid-19 contract workers
All healthcare workers who were contracted during the pandemic to ease the strain on our historic chronic gross shortage of personnel across the country must be permanently employed.
3. Hire all professional nurses post-community service period
The immediate and permanent absorption of all professional nurses who have completed their community service. Healthcare facilities are facing a gross shortage of staff with post-community service professional nurses in the system, showing them the exit door is an insult to the general public that stands to benefit from their existence.
4. The in-sourcing of security services in all facilities
The union believes that outsourcing is the ground for looting, corruption, and exploitation.
“When the security personnel withdraws their services over non-payment of their salaries, the safety of the healthcare workers is always compromised,” Sicina said.
5. South African Qualifications Framework (Saqa) must articulate correctly R425 to allow further education and training of registered nurses. The South African Nursing Council and Council on Higher Education must also speed up the process of R425 articulation. The union said they are delaying nurses’ further education and training.
6. The 10% recognition of prior learning by the Council on Higher Education should be reviewed and increased to 100% to allow enrolled nurses and nursing assistants to further advance their nursing careers. Taking only 10% of enrolled nursing assistants and enrolled nurses for the new curriculum, R171 and R174 is an injustice.
A representative of the National Department of Health received the memorandum on Wednesday.
Daily News