NURSES TOLD THERE ARE NO JOBS

Department is ‘playing with our emotions’

RECRUITED nurses in KwaZulu-Natal are frustrated after being told by the KZN College of Nursing that it was unlikely they would be permanently employed after their year of community service.

The KZN Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) felt the provincial Department of Health should inform these nurses of its plans for them or face legal action if they do not respond by today.

A 28-year-old nurse from northern KZN, who did not want to be named, felt the department was playing with their emotions as they should have been told at the start of January where they would be placed after completing their community service.

“When we called the college we were told to start looking for jobs in the private sector and, on top of that, there are rumours that we will be released from our contracts,” she said.

She said they are sitting at home with no word from the department, which has left her feeling depressed.

“I feel sorry for the group of nurses that is starting training this month. I’m afraid the same might happen to them,” she said.

A 24-year-old nurse from Durban said some nurses are the breadwinners and she felt shattered by the department’s actions.

“We have commitments,” she said. “They should have told us a long time ago that there were no posts. I also feel angry because they are only talking to us now that we have gone to the media.

“The person we spoke to changed his story and said he did not tell us there were no posts, but that he was busy with placements.”

Denosa provincial secretary Mandla Shabangu said that if the department chose not to employ the nurses, the nurses would be released from their obligation to repay the department for funding their studies and it would forfeit the service of hundreds of nurses.

Shabangu said Denosa was told by the department that it was working on the issue. He said he was hopeful he would receive something by today.

Health spokesperson Ncumisa Mafunda said the department has not employed any of the community service nurses “as it is in the process of identifying vacant and funded posts”.

She said there were still nurses who needed to be regraded after completing a bridging course from staff nurse to professional nurse.

“For this group, too, there is a process under way to find posts. The department is working to identify solutions for both these groups,” she said.

Meanwhile, 300 nurses received their induction and orientation in Pietermaritzburg yesterday, after struggling for years to find permanent employment. They officially reported for duty on Monday.

A CASH crunch has resulted in two provinces letting hundreds of nurses go after training them at a cost running into hundreds and thousands of rand from the public purse.

For the first time in many years, Gauteng and Limpopo will not absorb nurses who underwent community service in the previous year despite the country grappling with massive staff shortages in the public health sector .

The provinces have informed the nurses it did not have funded posts for them. The provincial departments funded the nurses’ four-year tertiary studies, aiming to use them to address personnel shortages crippling public clinics and hospitals.

In a circular The Star has seen, head of Gauteng Health Department Mkhululi Lukhele said all 2016/17 and 2017/18 community service nurses “appointed additional to the post establishment” should not be kept in service beyond February”.

Lukhele said this cohort should be appointed on a month-to-month contract for January and February.

“All (the) affected nurses should be encouraged to apply for posts with the private sector institutions that were engaged by the department,” said Lukhele.

“Institutions are instructed not to appoint external professional nurses in vacant funded posts. Only the nurses that have completed their community service in the Gauteng Department of Health must be considered for appointment in vacant funded posts.

“It must be emphasised that there should not be any community service nurse contracted beyond February 2019 as this special dispensation would have lapsed,” Lukhele added.

Much to their shock, Gauteng community service nurses were told of this at impromptu meetings last month, The Star has learnt.

“We were told in December that we have until February to find jobs because there are no posts. Just like that. No one told us anything before,” a nurse at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital said.

“They are saying the government doesn’t have money, it doesn’t have funded posts. We’re asking ‘so, where was the money coming from in the past two years?’

“Now we’re told, ‘no, we put you in false posts.’ They are telling us we were in cleaners’ posts. What kind of cleaner earns the same salary as a professional nurse?” the nurse asked.

She said more than 50 nurses at the Rahima Moosa alone faced being without jobs by the end of the next month.

Gauteng Health spokesperson Lesemang Matuka did not respond to emailed queries sent to him.

Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba has spoken out publicly about a cash crisis forcing her to release 444 workers who were doing community service.

The figure initially stood at 586 but the Limpopo finance department agreed to fund 142 posts of medical officers.

“To appoint all these professionals, will cost us an additional R333 million per financial year,” Ramathuba said at a press briefing.

“Unfortunately, (the provincial) treasury advised us that we cannot do so because there’s no additional provision in the provincial purse… considering the current financial crisis that the country, not just the province, is facing.”

A visibly emotional Ramathuba said 400 of the personnel they had to let go were former bursary recipients.

“We’ve sent these professionals to school to gain skills based on our needs and now we’re unable to appoint them.”

The Rahima Moosa hospital nurse said services were bound to be hamstrung by the cuts in hospitals and clinics. She recalled a night last month where only three community service nurses manned a maternity ward of 38 patients. “There’s no staff. We’re usually assisted by agency staff. It’s mostly two or three nurses working at a time,” she said.