Nurses to march against poor conditions and 'unresponsive' national council

22 February 2017 - 13:12 By Katharine Child
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Hospitals which score highly have a lot to gain from the new system. Those with consistently low scores may ultimately be removed from the scheme's network.
Hospitals which score highly have a lot to gain from the new system. Those with consistently low scores may ultimately be removed from the scheme's network.
Image: iSTOCK

Nurses have had enough. On Wednesday members of the Denosa and Nehawu unions will march in Pretoria to demand a change in working conditions and an improvement in the administration of the SA Nursing Council.

In response to the march and calls for an online registration system‚ the council closed its offices. This proved‚ said Denosa‚ how unresponsive it was.

The council did not answer repeated queries from Times Media about why the office had been shuttered to a protected march.

The council has only one office nationally‚ meaning many nurses have take off work to travel across the country to hand over yearly professional fees‚ as the registration system is not yet online. Many face losing their jobs when they fail to receive their annual fee certificate from the nursing council. The council had long been in disarray‚ said Laetitia Rispel‚ dean of the Wits School of Public Health.

"It has not had a CEO for more than a year. There have been chronic governance problems for a number of years."

Spokesman for Denosa Sibongiseni Delihlazo said the closure of the council office was "backward".

"The council is missing an opportunity to serve nurses who travelled from all the corners of the country' to protest against it.

They had proved they were against nurses "even though they are a regulatory body for nurses"‚ said Delihlazo.

The unions will also march to the Department of Health to demand an end to unsafe and poor working conditions.

Nurses said they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of patients they saw. Working conditions were unsafe because security at hospitals was poor.

The nursing council collects about R120-million in annual fees. It has not answered repeated questions about where the money goes.

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