Nurses face annual battle for licence to practise

NURSES face endless delays receiving their licence to practice after paying their annual professional fees, and some have had to travel across the country to get the certificate just to keep their jobs.

The frontline of South Africa’s health system‚ they say the way they are treated by the professional body, SA Nursing Council, shows that the government does not respect them.

In 2017‚ the annual payment system is not yet online and the 220 000 nurses and 73 000 nursing assistants must pay via FNB and fax proof of payment to the office. The certificate is then supposed to be posted but many say it never arrives.

Nurses who do not receive their licence must travel to the only office in the country to get it. Nomsa Hawker‚ who works in Saudi Arabia‚ travelled to Pretoria to pay in person last week.

“It is expensive but to save your job you need to do it. It is a pathetic situation. The government does not appreciate nurses [even though] we are the pillars of the health system.”

Using the number of nurses in the country as recorded on the council website and the annual fees‚ TMG established the council rakes in at least R120-million in fees a year.

A TMG team visited the council offices and found hundreds of nurses queuing for their documents.

A woman collapsed in the heat as the air-conditioner was not working.

One nurse asked: “Where does the nursing council money go?”

Philile Khoza took the day off work to fetch her sister’s licence.

Khoza’s sister is one of the nurses who has been penalised for late payment.

Khoza’s sister has to pay a fine of R1 760 for missing a payment and has been threatened with losing her state hospital job. Nurses at the offices said they found the fine exorbitant and that the deadline, normally in March, had closed in December last year.

The chairwoman of the council, Busisiwe Bhengu, said nurses did not need to fax proof of payment to the offices. But TMG has documentation from the council instructing nurses to do this. Bhengu said employers could check if nurses were registered using the electronic register‚ but many nurses said hard copies were required.

“If they pay in time‚ the council will not have to post their annual practising certificates in the busiest time for the post office,” Bhengu said. — TMG