DA found Embhuleni hospital with five staff nurses instead of 78 required. Department cites bed utilisation rate not organogram alone.
The Mpumalanga Department of Health concedes there is a shortage of nurses at Embhuleni district hospital, but denied the vacancy rate is at 94%.
A hospital source confirmed the shortage of nurses was affecting employees.
Department confirms Embhuleni Hospital nurse shortage
“It is true there is a shortage of staff nurses here, and we are being overworked.”
After the DA was tipped off, the party visited the hospital and confirmed that there was a serious problem.
The vacancy rate was estimated at 94% for staff nurses, and there was also a shortage of medical equipment and surgical consumables.
After the visit, the DA said it wrote a letter to Health MEC Sasekani Manzini, asking her to urgently appoint nurses and address the medical equipment shortages.
Bosman Grobler, a DA member of the Mpumalanga legislature, said: “This is after we found out that the hospital has a vacancy rate of 94% for staff nurses and a shortage of medical equipment and surgical consumables.
DA claims 94% vacancy rate
“The severe staff nurse shortage is concerning, taking into consideration the hospital is expected to service the Gert Sibande district, including an estimated 248 000 people from the local Chief Albert Luthuli municipality.”
Grobler said that, according to the provincial department of health’s third-quarter report for 2025-26, its organogram requires there must be 78 staff nurses in the hospital, but it only has five from the 73 required.
“The report also mentions they only operate with 117 professional nurses, but the organogram requires that they must have 149. They also have only 14 medical officers from the 39 needed.”
Mpumalanga health spokesperson Dumisane Malamule said the hospital had five staff nurses at the end of the fourth quarter and third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, five staff nurses were appointed, one started on 1 April, and four will resume work on 1 May.
Five instead of 78 required
“This vacancy rate was mainly created by internal departmental development programmes that trained staff nurses to become professional nurses,” said Malamule.
“The hospital has 220 approved beds and 185 usable beds with a bed utilisation rate of about 64% against the 185 usable beds.
“This therefore reduces the 94% [figure] because the department does not fill posts using only the organogram; it uses the bed utilisation rate as well in determining the vacancy rate in filling posts.”
Malamule said the hospital operates with 117 professional nurses against an organogram that has 149, and even here, other considerations like the workload and bed utilisation will be used to determine the accurate number needed.
For example, if more staff nurses and enrolled nursing assistants are appointed, the workload of the professional nurses is reduced, and therefore their demand in the system is reduced, Malamule added.
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