Delegates asked provincial health MEC Neliswa Peggy Nkonyeni to convey their unhappiness with the re-recruitment of retired nurses to a national health consultative forum that begins on Thursday (18 May).
Nomabhelu Duze, provincial chairperson of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), told the forum that she was against the re-hiring of the elderly, who could be ‘problematic’ in the workplace.
Duze later told Health-e that the department had not met with Nehawu to discuss the matter properly and questioned government’s commitment to youth development.
Other delegates asked whether any health service in the world was sustained by old people, and how recruiting ‘ama-gogos’ would improve service delivery.
In response, Nkonyeni said that the province had been proactive in approaching retired nurses as it wanted 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 government’s recruitment and retention strategies.
Nkonyeni said government could not deny nurses the opportunity to work overseas, something that had been very difficult under apartheid, but that those who left needed 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 needed ‘a decent, market-related salary’.
‘Of the 190 000 nurses in the country, about 35 000 are moonlighting in a corridor between the private and the public sector because they can earn more money than being in fulltime employment,’ said a nurse from a rural hospital. ‘Some of our areas face terrible shortages and government must concentrate on these areas.’
