Critical shortage of skilled nurses, warns MEC

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HEALTH MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa has disclosed that the provincial health department is facing a “critical shortage of skilled nursing personnel”. DA MPL Jack Bloom said that Ramokgopa revealed last week at a nurses seminar in Krugersdorp that the health department was operating on a staff establishment based on the provincial population of 2006, when there were 4.8million fewer people. Bloom said the number of nursing posts was based on a population of 9.5million in 2006, but this population has now “grown to an estimated 14.3million over the past 12 years without any upward adjustment”. This situation has been worsened by a circular to hospitals directing them to fill only 50% of vacant funded posts occupied by retired, resigned and deceased nursing personnel. “I am horrified by Ramokgopa’s admission that these circumstances led to nursing managers allocating unskilled nursing personnel to attend to patients in critical areas. This is extremely irresponsible and raises the risk of medical negligence,” said Bloom.

Another bombshell was that “the department does not have an approved organisational structure for the review period 2014-19. A draft has been developed and approved by the Executing Authority but has to be ratified by the Minister of Public Service and Administration”, he said.

“The department has a weak Human Resources division. It operates on an outdated and inadequate personnel structure that cannot provide quality care to patients.”

A bad situation is worsened by the current crude policy of filling only 50% of unfilled posts, which is putting great strain on hospital staff,” said Bloom.

The department needs to strengthen its top management team which currently leaps from blunder to blunder, Bloom said. - African News Agency (ANA)