When the World Health Organization designated 2020 the Year of the Nurse and Midwife to acknowledge their vital role in healthcare, nobody could foresee exactly howWe did not know at the time that 2020 would be the year in which the world came to a sudden and shocking halt due to the pandemic. As frontline workers, nurses were at the coalface, day and night.
“This pandemic has highlighted that the healthcare system cannot function without nursing as its backbone.”Cracks in the system More recent statistics published by the SANC indicate that in 2021, at least 276,819 nurses were registered, which results in a population-per-qualified-nurse figure of about 218:1.
With 10,000 vacancies and only 3,196 degreed nurses produced, it is clear what the core problem is: South Africa has a critical shortage of nurses with adequate qualifications.
Simple fix. Stop paying all the ghost employees in government and employ more nurses