Gauteng’s public health system is facing a nursing shortage after budget constraints left clinical posts vacant.
According to Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson Steve Mabona, the moratorium on clinical posts has now been lifted, with more than 1,200 positions at various stages of recruitment.
“We have started the process of advertising, interviewing, shortlisting and filling those positions.
“They’ve conducted interviews already, and we have over 1,000 positions that have been shortlisted.”
Mabona said the department is also retaining some retired specialist nurses to help stabilise hospitals, while expanding training to address shortages in areas including ICU, theatres and mental health.
“There are those who would have retired, and we had to go back… especially the specialising ones… call upon those that would have retired. We gave them contracts, and we’ve just renewed the contracts of those who would have retired so that we stabilise the system. But yes, the challenge remains.
“We have interacted with the college to say, let’s have more nurses who are going to be specialising so that we fill the gaps in all those specialities that we need… and we’ve started that process. There will be an intake soon of nurses, or those that want to study for nursing, but also those that are specialising; we will then be taking those through the training because for you to specialise you need to be trained.”
He added that high trauma volumes are putting further pressure on the system, with some elective surgeries cancelled to accommodate emergencies.
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Celeste Martin
www.ewn.co.za
