216 NEWLY QUALIFIED NURSES NOT GIVEN JOBS AT GAUTENG HOSPITALS

More than 200 newly qualified nurses finishing their community service at Gauteng state hospitals face unemployment as they are not being absorbed into permanent posts as happened previously.

It costs more than R500 000 to train a professional nurse for four years and they then do one year of Community Service.

The Young Nurses Indaba has compiled a list of 16 out of 36 public hospitals in Gauteng where community service nurses have been told to find employment elsewhere. The largest number is at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital where 62 nurses will be terminated at the end of February.

Other hospitals discharging large numbers of nurses include the following:

Tambo Memorial Hospital - 20 nurses

Rahima Moosa Hospital - 17 nurses

Edenvale Hospital - 15 nurses

Thelle Mogoerane - 15 nurses

Bertha Gxowa - 14 nurses 

Yusuf Dadoo Hospital - 11 nurses

South Rand Hospital - 10 nurses

Jubilee Hospital - 10 nurses

Tara H Moross Hospital - 8 nurses

Tshwane District Hospital - 8 nurses

Bheki Mlangeni Hospital - 7 nurses

West Rand District - 7 nurses

Kopanong Hospital - 5 nurses

Cullinan Care Centre - 4 nurses

Weskoppies Hospital - 3 nurses

A total of 216 nurses face unemployment if they cannot get jobs in the private health sector, as the Gauteng Health Department has advised them to do.

It makes no sense to spend huge amounts of money on training nurses, but not employing them even though there is a large shortage of nurses in public hospitals.

This shows yet again the failure of the Gauteng Health Department caused by poor management and widespread corruption.

Statement by Jack Bloom MPL, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 7 January 2019