Gauteng’s health department pledges more ICU nurse training as vacancies, budget limits and burnout strain patient care and delay operations.
The Gauteng department of health (DoH) has committed to prioritising ICU nurse training, with plans to train more nurses and review organisational structures amid a shortage of ICU nurses.
According to the department, there are 791 unfilled positions for ICU (intensive care unit) nurses.
“We acknowledge the implications of the shortage of ICU nurses, which is why ICU is one of the units being prioritised by the Gauteng department of health,” MEC for health and wellness Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko said on Friday.
Shortage of ICU nurses
“Moreover, the department has reviewed its organisational structure to accommodate an increased number of nursing speciality posts.”
DA Gauteng shadow MEC for health Dr Jack Bloom said on Thursday that Gauteng’s public hospitals have only 751 ICU nurses.
He said this is less than half of the 1760 ICU nurses needed to serve the Gauteng population.
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Bloom said MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko disclosed this information in a written reply to his questions in the Gauteng legislature.
The shortage leads to higher patient mortality, lower quality of care, heavier workloads and burnout among staff, delayed or cancelled procedures and surgeries, longer hospital stays, poorer patient experiences and higher health care costs due to overtime and temporary staffing.
“Persistent shortages can discourage potential nurses from pursuing ICU careers and lead to experienced ICU nurses leaving the profession. Insufficient staffing can undermine patient safety initiatives, such as infection prevention and control and medication safety programmes,” the MEC also said in reply to Bloom.
Budget constraints blamed for shortage
Nkomo-Ralehoko blamed budget constraints and few speciality ICU nurses.
Bloom said the ideal ratio is 10–20 ICU beds per 100 000 people, meaning Gauteng should have between 1 600 and 3 200 ICU beds for its 16 million residents, and between 1 760 and 3 520 ICU nurses.
“I am concerned that there are 250 ICU nurse vacancies, which means that one in four ICU nurse positions are unfilled, despite the vast need,” he said.
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Bloom added that the lack of ICU nurses is a major reason why many operations are cancelled, as emergency cases take precedence. It also contributes to long waiting times for operations.
The departmenn of health said it is reviewing the current service delivery model on utilising ICU nurses in the four hospital clusters, as they are critically scarce skills.
To boost ICU nurse training, the MEC told the provincial legislature that the Gauteng College of Nursing had applied to the South African Nursing Council to increase its ICU nurse training intake from 85 to 100 a year in order to address the skills shortage.
Nurse training
The department is also running an 80-hour ICU upskilling programme that trains 160 professional nurses from clinical facilities each year.
“The interventions that are implemented also aim to alleviate the shortage in highly specialised areas such as oncology, ICU and mental health as the department is currently training 85 professional nurses at a college and another 60 at various universities,” the department said.
