More nurses needed for NHI Bill to be implemented smoothly

JOHANNESBURG - As the world gears up to commemorate International Nurses' Day on Sunday, the Life HealthCare Hospital group said that the hotly contested NHI Bill needed more nurses within the healthcare sector in order to be implemented without a hitch.

The hospital group weighed in on the feasibility of the bill at a media briefing in Rosebank, Johannesburg on Wednesday.

It said that in order for the bill to be effective, the immediate training and absorption of more nurses into the country’s healthcare system was vital.

Often referred to as the backbone of the healthcare system, both public and private, thousands of nurses sit at home, unemployed and unable to provide much-needed services.

The Life Healthcare group has called on government to prioritise citizen health by training more nurses.

In 2019, several private hospitals appealed to the SA Nursing Council to lift a restriction on the number of nurses private hospitals could train.

To date, SA's two biggest hospital groups, Netcare and Mediclinic have only trained 303 nurses.

Life Healthcare CEO Pete Wharton-Hood: "In the context of why, I am not getting any reasonable answers. We look at it and say hang on a minute, there is something at play here that we do not understand. We know that we have to train more nurses, we are not stopping."

Warthon-Hood reiterated that private healthcare providers were more than willing to extend a hand to the public sector to mitigate the critical nursing shortage.