Nursing shortage a ‘threat to everyone’s healthcare’
Private hospital group Netcare CEO Richard Friedland has sounded a stark warning about SA’s nursing shortage, saying the crisis is putting a damper on the company’s growth prospects and threatens the provision of healthcare in both the public and private sectors.
The private hospital sector has grown outspoken about SA’s nursing shortage. It is frustrated by the state’s squeeze on the number of nurses trained in the private sector. Netcare, for example, had been accredited to train more than 3,000 a year; it now trains barely a 10th of that.
“We have an ageing population of nurses, just as [Eskom] has an ageing fleet [of power stations]. The government was warned of this well in advance and chose to ignore it. We have a crisis at hand and it needs to be addressed,” Friedland said in an interview shortly after Netcare released its interim results for the six months to March 31.
Netcare reported an 11.9% increase in revenue to R11.5bn, compared with R10.3bn in the corresponding period in 2022, while headline earnings per share rose 40% to 44.8c, compared with 31.9c the year before.
The company upped its dividend 50% to 30c per share, in line with its policy of returning 50%-70% of adjusted headline earnings to shareholders.
Paid patient days, a measure of hospital performance, grew 11.5% and occupancy by 6.8 percentage points to 63.2%.
IN AN SA CRYING OUT FOR SKILLS AND JOBS, THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD ENCOURAGE THE PRIVATE SECTOR TO TRAIN AS MANY NURSES AS POSSIBLE
“These are the strongest set of results we have produced since Covid-19. We remain confident of further recovery — the only impediment to future growth remains being able to find adequately trained nursing staff,” Friedland said.
He expressed frustration that Netcare’s proposal to the government to create 50,000 jobs by training more nurses has failed to find traction, saying the plan could have eliminated the shortage within eight years. The plan was tabled at the presidential jobs summit in 2018 by the key industry body, the Hospital Association of SA (Hasa).
“In a country crying out for skills and crying out for jobs, the government should be encouraging the private sector to train as many nurses as possible,” said Friedland. Hasa is evaluating its options and seeking legal opinion on the matter, he said.
Hasa spokesperson Mark Peach said almost half the current contingent of nurses is due to retire in the next decade, and the public sector cannot keep pace with the required number of new nurses. Hasa views the nursing shortage as “a serious threat to national healthcare provision and our social fabric” and is using “all the levers” at its disposal to deal with the issue.
This includes direct engagement with regulators and legislators, and through legal opinion
and guidance, he said.
Friedland’s sentiments were echoed by Life Healthcare CEO Peter Wharton-Hood, who said the nursing shortage poses a bigger threat than the rolling blackouts imposed by stateowned power utility Eskom. Hospitals could buffer themselves against electricity outages with investment in generators, diesel and solar panels, but could do little to mitigate the risks of staff shortages, he said.
Estimates vary but by every account SA is desperately short of nurses. The department of health’s human resources strategy for 2030 projects that by 2025 there will be a shortage of 34,000 registered nurses in primary healthcare alone, while Hasa estimates the nursing gap at between 21,000 and 61,000.
Business Day understands work done by the Public Private Growth Initiative to estimate the gap and devise a plan to bridge it is close to finalisation.
Netcare said due to increased load-shedding diesel costs for generators rose from R10m a year ago to R67m in the latest reporting period, as SA’s energy crisis continues.
Netcare has been investing in alternative energy sources for the past decade and has reduced its reliance on the national grid by about 35%, said Friedland. While Netcare views a total grid collapse as unlikely, it is fully prepared for it, he said.
Netcare shares closed 1.6% lower at R14.74 on the JSE, giving it a market cap of R21.2bn.