The Star reports that South African unions have slammed the renewed and vigorous drive from the United Kingdom to recruit thousands of nurses to boost manpower in hospitals in England.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) urged the government to retain nurses before more were lost to the UK. This followed a report that was released in the UK on the severe shortage of nurses in England and the advice from policy experts that managers of hospitals should personally fly to low and middle income countries to actively recruit nurses to work in the National Health Service (NHS). Denosa president Simon Hlungwani reacted: “We would like to urge the National Department of Health (DoH) to put in place, urgently, a staff retention plan before South African nurses leave for England in large numbers, which will further hurt the country’s own National Health Insurance (NHI) plan.” He said the DoH’s staff retention in the form of the occupation-specific dispensation (OSD) for nurses from 2007 had long lapsed and there was no other plan to discourage nurses from leaving the country. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union’s (Nehawu’s) Khaya Xaba echoed Denosa’s sentiments. DoH spokesperson Popo Maja said there was nothing they could do about the recruitments. “This has happened before, it’s not new. It is one’s decision to stay in the country or leave. We are not in a position to stop them,” said Maja.
- Read the full original of Yethu Dlamini’s report in the above regard at The Star
- Read Denosa’s press statement on this matter at Cosatu News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page