Public sector healthcare bleeding nurses

Despite the shortage of nurses and other staff at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Gauteng's health department insists that the facility is capable of rendering services to the public.

Department spokesman, Steve Mabona, said Health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, has assured the public that the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital continues to thrive and render quality services despite losing clinical staff pursuing better opportunities in the private sector. According to Mahlangu's written reply to questions posed by the DA's health spokesman and MPL Jack Bloom, the hospital was short of 364 nurses and had a total of 436 vacancies in all staff positions. Mahlangu said the other vacancies at the hospital included 27 allied staff, 21 admin staff, 12 support staff as well as 12 medical staff.

Despite Mahlangu's reassurance that the hospital was functioning and able to attend to patients, Bloom expressed his concern at the high number of vacancies there, especially those relating to nurses. He said the nursing shortage at the hospital surely does affect the quality of patient care, and added that training and recruitment was needed to fill the nursing posts at the major hospital as many nurses were close to retirement age. Although the department admits that there are vacant posts at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, many of them have been filled.

This includes 2 201 nursing posts, 625 medical staff and 305 allied staff. Mahlangu said vacant posts at the hospital were advertised when they became available and filled timeously. She said the entire hospital had a staff complement of about 3 131 personnel in the key clinical categories including nursing, medical and allied staff members. Mahlangu attributed the loss of staff at the hospital to several factors, such as better remuneration in the private sector and the opportunity for self-employment.

She said Thelle Mogoerane Hospital in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni, had also experienced staff departures due to similar reasons. She said that at Thelle Mogoerane many staff departures could be attributed to personal reasons such as promotions, work overload and distance between home and the workplace. This, however, had not affected patient care as patients were referred to tertiary facilities whenever the need arose. Mahlangu added that the department was working with Wits University and was in the process of expanding the training platform at the facility by appointing registrars and consultants in neurosurgery, general surgery, urology and internal medicine.

The Star, 17 August 2016