Only 22,000 nurses in SA public healthcare with budget constraints limiting new hires

South Africa has only 22,090 nurses to serve more than 50-million people dependent on the public health sector. Of these, more than 30% will retire in the next 10 years and a further 38% will retire a decade later.

This, and that there are 5,060 vacancies for various nursing specialities, was revealed by health minister Dr Joe Phaahla in an answer to a written parliamentary question from the DA.

The minister said he “is unable to state the envisaged time frame to fill the vacant positions due to general budget cuts that negatively affect the Compensation of Employment” and that the filling of vacant posts were prioritised “where the budgets permit”, said DA MP Michéle Clarke.

The Rural Health Advocacy Project said recently large numbers of nurses were unemployed because of mismatches between the categories of nurses being trained and the categories of those needed, inconsistent and poor-quality training, the reluctance of nurses to work in rural and remote areas, and unfunded vacancies in the public sector.

Last month, private healthcare network Netcare voiced its concern about a critical shortage of nurses and its frustration that private hospitals are restricted from accelerating training to deal with the shortfall.

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