Shortage of nurses in ‘serious’, but ‘there’s no urgency to address the issue’

The lack of urgency and failure to address the shortage of nurses poses a serious threat to the future of the health sector.

Data from the South Africa Nursing Council (SANC) in 2022 showed the country had a nursing staff contingent of about 280 000, which equated to one nurse to about 214 people.

At the end of December 2020, there were more than 21 000 nurses in training and, according to the Rural Health Advocacy project, SA currently has a shortage of between 26 000 and 62 000 professional nurses.

ALSO REAS: SA only has 22 000 nurses – and it’s likely to get worse

Yet the national department of health doesn’t seem to have its own figures correct.

Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla said, in his written reply to questions by the Democratic Alliance’s shadow minister of health Michéle Clarke, in parliament this week that SA has only 22 090 nurses to serve the 60 million people dependent on the public health sector – one nurse to about 2 700 people.

Media outlets reported the figures, but so far there has been no effort from the health department to correct them.

Phaahla ‘got it wrong’

Taking the SANC figures, the nurse to population ratio would be one nurse to 214 people. This is still a shocking figure but nowhere near as bad as the minister’s official statistic implies. The minister said 30% of nurses will retire in the next 10 years. A further 38% will retire in the decade after.

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Democratic Nursing Organisation South Africa (Denosa) spokesperson Sibongiseni Delihlazo said the figure of 22 000 nurses for 60 million South Africans was incorrect.

Delihlazo said although he was not sure what context the figure was used in, SA’s public health sector did not have 22 000 nurses. He said Gauteng alone had over 30 000 nurses.

“Regarding this figure, I sent this to the department of health because they need to explain if it’s being reported incorrectly because it is going to create a reality out there, which is not necessarily the case,” he said.

“This figure is a very big issue that needs to be corrected. I do not know where it’s coming from and it is confusing and especially when it is said that the 22 000 are looking after 60 million in the public sector.”

Phaahla said across all provinces, there were 5 060 nursing posts (15.7% vacancy rate).

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“The department is unable to state the envisaged time frame to fill the vacant positions due to general budget cuts that negatively affect the compensation of employment – the date when the specified challenges will be eradicated,” he said.

“But it can confirm that measures are applied across provinces to prioritise the filling of vacant posts where budgets permit.”

Shortage of nurses

Delihlazo said the shortage of nurses was serious and there was a lack of urgency in addressing the issue.

“Lack of budgets by the department as the reason not to fill the positions is a serious problem for us, for nursing in SA and for the public healthcare system in general,” he said.

“The specialist nurses take care of patients who need a higher level of care. You need to have nurses who are trained in specific areas such as paediatric, orthopaedic and all specialist areas.

“If you do not have enough specialist nurses, it means the level of care given to those patients in intensive care units, in trauma, in emergency, theatre and paediatric departments will not be the level of care they need.”

Delihlazo said the biggest problem in SA was how Denosa trained nurses and that the budget to train them was getting “smaller and smaller” in provinces, instead of increasing in line with population growth.

“Also in line with the burden of disease in provinces and taking into account the influx of nationals from foreign countries who must be cared for here when they’re in SA,” he said.

“The department of health is moving in the opposite direction from which it should go.

“It should increase the budget for the training of nurses for this because, largely, the training of nurses is the responsibility of the government.”

Clarke said situations like these were “exactly why the National Health Insurance is destined to fail”.

“The ANC government is incapable of managing the public health sector,” she said.

Permanent employment

Meanwhile, a group of Covid health workers has resolved to camp outside the office of the Gauteng premier in Johannesburg, calling for permanent employment of all Covid support workers.

Bags and blankets were seen outside the premier’s office and workers held placards saying “We want our jobs back” and “We were being used”.

Lorraine Letshole, a porter, said they have had several meetings with officials from the Gauteng department of health and the office of the premier regarding this situation and were promised it would be resolved.

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“When our contracts ended, premier Panyaza Lesufi promised that on the 24th of the following month we will return to work. “But once we returned to work, the institutions told us they knew nothing about this,” she said.

“It has been three months now. We keep being given different dates. It is just empty promises.”

– lungas@citizen.co.za