Fresh, energetic and experienced retired nurses are being brought back to work by the Eastern Cape health department, in a bid to ease the problem of staff shortages in its heath facilities.
Since 2005 the department has been trying to attract retired nurses back to the profession.
According to the department, the shortage of nurses is a national problem – made worse because many are poached to work abroad, where they are paid far better than in South Africa.
According to Sizwe Kupelo, spokesperson of the provincial department, the retired nurses are being hired on a renewable six to 12-month contract and most are being deployed in rural areas such as the Transkei, where there the shortage is most serious.
Fresh, energetic and experienced retired nurses are being brought back to work by the Eastern Cape health department, in a bid to ease the problem of staff shortages in its heath facilities.
Since 2005 the department has been trying to attract retired nurses back to the profession.
According to the department, the shortage of nurses is a national problem – made worse because many are poached to work abroad, where they are paid far better than in South Africa.
According to Sizwe Kupelo, spokesperson of the provincial department, the retired nurses are being hired on a renewable six to 12-month contract and most are being deployed in rural areas such as the Transkei, where there the shortage is most serious.
Kupelo adds, “The department trains more nurses than any other university or college and we also allocate bursaries for matriculants to further their studies in nursing and other medical fields. We produce quality graduates who are often poached by countries such as England.”
Another challenge for the department is that the Eastern Cape is largely rural and many younger nurses choose to relocate to other provinces, such as Gauteng and Western Cape.
To fill the resulting vacancies Kupelo said they had advertised many positions ranging from nursing to support staff, and were currently interviewing the candidates in order to fill in those vacant positions.
The nursing union in the province, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), strongly criticised the department, saying that recruitment of retired nurses was not a long-term solution, but rather a short term measure. “During our meetings with the department we have on several occasions raised this concern with the department over its lack of recruitment for young kids from matric. The department has indicated to us that it experiencing budget constraints to recruit new nursing personnel,” said Koliswa Tota, Denosa’s provincial secretary.
The union added that it was concerned that the department of health had not recruited any nurses from Grade 12 for the 2011/2012 financial year, but had trained those already in the field.
Tota said the department was experiencing a staff shortage to the extent of about 48 percent, with nursing staff also performing other non-nursing duties.
She said the department should fill vacant positions as soon as they occurred.
According to John Cupido, provincial spokesperson on health for the DA, his party welcomed the retired nurses back to their posts, because they brought experience and expertise to the new generation of nurses. However, he said the department should not take funds meant to revamp heath infrastructure.
Instead, there should be a specific budget for recruiting more staff. Cupido said doctors and other medical specialists were also urgently needed in most parts of the province.
