8 May 2006
Rustenburg â About 100 retired nurses attended the North West retired nurses
summit held at Hunters Rest Hotel in the Bojanala District yesterday to discuss
their role and other issues that might help in accelerating the pace of health
service delivery as envisaged by the North West Department of Health.
One of the retired nurses, Mrs Gladys Matjie, who attended the summit,
expressed her appreciation to the Department for such a move. âPeople should
not join nursing profession to earn a living, nursing is a calling. One has to
have passion and commitment, as retired legends we are ready to comeback and
serve our community with pride, instil back the spirit of Batho Pele principles
into the new nursing generation, as well as restoring the dignity this
profession once enjoyed,â Matjie said.
They further urged the Department to come up with benefits that will be
enjoyed by nursing professionals, upgrading critical nursing positions. âWe
loose quality nursing professionals who are appointed as managers and we as
nurses need debriefing session since we are there when a baby is born and dies.
If the Department can seriously look into conditions of nursing profession, I
believe there will be no nurses going abroadâ she said.
Other recommendations included the increase in the nursing uniform allowance
and a possible re-look at the current staff establishment. In some instances
the latter remain the same for 10 years while patientâs ratio has increased.
Furthermore delegates welcomed the recently adopted National Human Resources
(NHP) plan for health, which is expected to address the challenges around
shortages of health professionals in particular the nursing profession and
other scare skills in the sector.
âThe Department values inputs from these legends and we are optimistic that
when some of them are back into the service, issues of staff morale and
shortages will get a boost, emphasised,â said North West Health MEC, Nomonde
Rasmeni.
In our facilities we are still faced with a huge shortage of health workers,
especially in Out Patient Department (OPD) and maternity wards and this summit
comes at a critical time when we need all the available skills and high levels
of Batho-Pele ethos in the profession. As we look at the different criterions
available to recruit retired nurses and the provisions of the public service
regulation, we will do so taking into consideration the issues the retired
nurses raised here today, concluded Rasmeni.
The province is expected to in the next few monthsâ issue out a list of all
available vacancies were these nurses would be deployed to and on what terms
and conditions.
Enquiries:
Barba Gaoganediwe
Departmental Spokesperson
Tel: (018) 387 5830
Fax: (018) 387 5830
E-mail: kgaoganediwe@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Health, North West Provincial Government
8 May 2006
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za/)
