Council must get with the times
THE past seven or so days saw healthcare issues making headline news, albeit in a negative way.
Much attention has been afforded to the Esidimeni fatalities, so I’ll stick to the issue of the nursing regulatory body.
The South African Nursing Council (SANC) made news with its total disregard for its clients – nurses. The body is treating nurses with pure disdain.
As the SANC serves the majority of healthcare practitioners, namely nurses, and among its fiduciary duties is to renew annually the practising licences of these nurses. Surprisingly, in this technological era, SANC finds it irrelevant to invest in technology and thus limit long queues for clients.
Implementing electronic transfers for renewal of annual licences is the solution to all of this.
The delivery of annual practising certificates for those who made bank deposits can take up to three months before delivery, depending on the geographical location of the client, and SANC can avert this by utilising courier services. The institution has only one office in Pretoria and no provincial and/or regional satellite offices, and this results in nurses making long journeys for basic services.
It charges exorbitant penalty fees for restoration to the register, charging thrice the licensing fees and this is irrespective of the timeframe of restoration. SANC thinks it can do as it pleases as the biggest nurses’ union – the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) – is turning a blind eye.
Denosa, of which I am a member in good standing, has been quiet on these shenanigans. The union’s recent media statement and the impending march to SANC offices is a kneejerk reaction influenced by the fear of losing members to the Young Nurses Indaba, which has been active throughout the Esidimeni tragedy.