The addition of specialist nurses by the Department of Home Affairs to the critical skills list has drawn renewed attention to and criticism of the chronic shortage of nurses in South Africa.
According to a statement by Life Healthcare last year, the country would need as many 26 000 additional nurses in 2022 to meet growing demand.
“Nurses have been on the frontline of the efforts to combat COVID for over two years. They are understandably exhausted and require our support as they continue to deliver quality care to our patients,” the group said, adding that it was embarking on programme to train an additional 3000 nurses per year.
In an open letter on the situation, the Hospital Association of South Africa (HASA) said that there was considerable training capacity and willingness from private sector hospitals, while also noting that the transition to new nursing qualifications has interrupted nurse training.
Last week, following engagement with the Minister of Health, South African Nursing Council, Health Professions Council of South Africa, public hospital CEOs and other experts, the DHA published an updated critical skills list, which was expanded to include specialist nurses and medical specialists.
The registered nurse specialties are intensive/critical care, psychiatric, peri-operative, trauma and paediatric nursing, as well as midwife specialists.
What many seen as the government’s inaction over the situation has not gone without criticism.
Speaking to the the Sunday Tribune, Sibongiseni Delihlazo of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA said that they were “extremely angry that we have to import specialist nurses because of the government’s actions.”
He points to falling numbers of nurses being produced each year and the shutting of nursing colleges as a sign of government neglect. World Health Organization studies showed a worldwide nursing shortage of 10 million positions by 2030, which needed an 8% annual increase in new nurses.
“Our country has not adhered to the warning, but has done the opposite,” he said.
Delihlazo said that most nursing students received government funding which was drying up, yet the population growth continued as did public healthcare system demand.
Public healthcare was not releasing nurses for specialist training, as doing so would cause the system to crumbled, Delihlazo said. In addition, local nurses are being effectively poached by first world nations.
“We could have produced our own nurses in a country with serious unemployment issues. The government doesn’t have a strategy to keep our nurses,” he said.
