EWN reports that the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday said that SA had a deficit of to 400,000 nurses and would not be able to meet the demand once the National Health Insurance (NHI) came into effect.
The party claimed that in its hurried attempt to implement NHI, government had stalled the process of accrediting new and current nurse training institutions, which would be critical to the rollout of the NHI. This came as Parliament’s health portfolio committee sent letters to all political parties in the National Assembly indicating that public hearings on the NHI Bill would start in October. The DA said it would write to Health Minister Zweli Mkhize to request a detailed public statement explaining how his department would expedite the process of accrediting nursing institutions, which would be central to the successful implementation of the NHI because trained nurses would service NHI accredited healthcare centres. DA Member of Parliament Madeleine Hicklin said it was puzzling to know how the government intended to achieve its NHI target of one staff member per 40 patients when it had shown that it was not committed to finding an urgent solution to the nursing crisis.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Babalo Ndenze at EWN
- Read too, Nursing crisis raises more concerns over NHI plan, at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page