Nurses’ union calls for more state jobs

File picture: Supplied

File picture: Supplied

Published Jan 27, 2019

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Cape Town - The Democratic Nurses Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) is in talks with the provincial and national health departments about the employment of nurses.

There have been reports from KwaZulu-Natal that thousands of nursing graduates are competing for 300 posts in public hospitals. The situation is no different in the Western Cape, said Denosa secretary-general in the Western Cape Danver Roman.

He said a further challenge was that nursing graduates from the Western Cape were placed in other provinces to complete their community service.

“It does not make logical sense,” he said.

Nursing students who receive government funding are required to do a year of community service.

He said the service demand has increased - new services were made available, but nursing posts were not increased.

Health services are free, the government’s focus changed to primary health care which is dependent on nurses and therefore more nurses should be appointed.

He cited a change in the burden of disease, with HIV/Aids, resistant tuberculosis, chronic diseases, more vehicle collisions and exposure to diseases in foreign countries added to the workload.

Another factor weighing on the healthcare system is an ageing population and more births.

He said the Health Department was “trying to keep costs down, at the expense of the community and nurses”.

Spokesperson Colleen Smart said the department provided opportunities “where necessary”, while the private sector placed its students at private hospitals.

There are about 13000 nurses employed by the provincial health department. This year the intake of nursing students was 110 at the Western Cape College of Nursing, 50 at Stellenbosch University, 141 at University of the Western Cape and 60 at Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

The South African Nursing Council, which oversees training and practice of nursing, said there are six private and 13 public training institutions in the Western Cape.

It could not comment on unemployment of nurses, saying that was within the ambit of the provincial health department.

Meanwhile, private hospital group Netcare has issued retrenchment notices to employees, signalling its intention to restructure. It said nationally, 516 Netcare staffers have been giving retrenchment letters.

Netcare’s Group employment relations manager, Ramasela Mokonyama, said the process would not affect nursing staff.

“The statement made by Denosa, that hundreds of staff members will lose their jobs is somewhat misleading and confusing, given that no nurses who are engaged in the provision of patient care are involved in the review, which is restricted to staff employed in other categories,” Mokonyama said.

Another private healthcare provider, Mediclinic, said it had about 100 students in nursing undergraduate programmes.

It also offers training to address shortages of qualified and specialist healthcare staff across the country.

Weekend Argus

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