The KwaZulu-Natal health department’s recent appeal for retired nurses to return to work to help alleviate staff shortages was condemned as unsustainable and “an abuse of the elderly” by delegates at a recent provincial health forum.
Delegates asked provincial health minister Neliswa Peggy Nkonyeni to convey their unhappiness with the re-recruitment of retired nurses to a national health consultative forum that started on Thursday May 18.
Nomabhelu Duze, provincial chairperson of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), told the forum that she was against the rehiring of the elderly, who could be “problematic” in the workplace.
Duze later told Health-e news service that the department had not met Nehawu to discuss the matter properly and questioned the government’s commitment to youth development.
Other delegates asked whether any health service in the world is sustained by old people, and how recruiting “ama-gogos [old women]” would improve service delivery.
In response, Nkonyeni said the province has been proactive in approaching retired nurses as it wants them to help “instil professional ethics in new recruits”, not to run the service.
The shortage of nurses dominated the forum’s agenda, with many questions being asked about the government’s recruitment and retention strategies.
Nkonyeni said the government cannot deny nurses the opportunity to work overseas, something that was very difficult under apartheid, but that those who left need to be encouraged to return, as “no country is as beautiful as South Africa”.
However, she lashed out at developed countries for “are deliberating recruiting the professional staff of African countries”.
“We invest, as poor countries, in training nurses and doctors. But then their recruitment agencies come to our countries with a lot of money and recruit our staff because they feel that their people are more important than ours,” said Nkonyeni.
Delegates responded by saying that nurses need “a decent, market-related salary”.
“Of the 190Â 000 nurses in the country, about 35Â 000 are moonlighting in a corridor between the private and the public sector because they can earn more money than being in full-time employment,” said a nurse from a rural hospital. “Some of our areas face terrible shortages and government must concentrate on these areas.” — Health-e