The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in Eastern Cape is pleased with the State of the Province Address on health aspects as delivered by Premier of the province, Pumullo Masualle.
While he announced the number of health professionals that the province has produced, DENOSA would like to urge the province to make it its culture to absorb the professionals that it enrolls with its funding, as their service is greatly needed by communities, especially those in rural areas.
Many nurses who have qualified are sitting at home looking for work, which highlights a weakness in human resource planning for the province whereas the skills pool is readily available.
There was also a big mistake that the province committed a couple of years ago, where they stopped training all categories of nurses but focused only on producing professional nurses, which led to the great skills drought that forced the province to recruit lower category nurses from other provinces such as KZN.
DENOSA also applauds the provincial government’s commitment to infrastructural upgrade of the health facilities in various districts in the province, as well as the construction of new clinics which are at various stages of construction.
In the same breath, DENOSA would like to appeal to the provincial government to include both the upgrade as well as the construction of new nurses’ colleges and nurses’ residences where there is a great need.
DENOSA is also humbled by the premier’s undertaking to reduce unemployment in the province, especially among youth, which is becoming a serious problem in the province as it has lagged behind in creating job opportunities for its people compared to other provinces.