Temp nurses and support staff to lose jobs at Gauteng health facilities as Covid-19 budget is slashed

With its Covid-19 budget halved and the spread of the pandemic tapering off, the Gauteng department of health (GDoH) says it cannot afford to renew all 8,000 temporary posts created at its peak.

This will begin to take effect by the end of this month.

The department received a Covid-19 grant budget amount of R2.2bn for compensation of employees to respond to the pandemic. The budget enabled the department to appoint critical staff required since 2020 on contract.

The initial grant amount has since been reduced to R1.1bn for the 2022/23 financial year.

“As a result the department will not be able to renew all temporary contracts of various categories of workers who were hired as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic when their contracts end at the end of March 2022.”

More than 8,000 posts were created for various categories of healthcare workers which included: administrative and support staff, allied, clinical, engineering and nursing personnel.

“The temporary contracts were for a period not exceeding 12 months during the 2020/2021 financial year. However, the contracts were extended for another year after the GDoH was allocated funds for the 2021/22 financial year,” the department said.

The appointments were rolled out in phases to address inadequate capacity where needed.

Gauteng MEC for health Dr Nomathemba Mokgethi said: “Inasmuch as the GDoH wants to keep all Covid-19 appointees to continue providing much-needed services, it is not possible to extend all the contracts without funding.”

Mokgethi said a decision on which employees will be retained will be based on service needs at each hospital and the availability of the budget in each facility.

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