Question NW3093 to the Minister of Health
21 September 2015 - NW3093
Volmink, Mr HC to ask the Minister of Health
(1) In respect of each category of nursing specialty in the public sector in each province, how many (a) budgeted posts are there, (b) posts were vacant as at the latest specified date for which information is available, (c) of these posts were vacant as a result of being frozen and (d) of the posts which were not frozen have remained vacant for longer than six months; (2) what is the salary scale of each category of nursing specialty in the public sector; (3) how many nurses in each category of nursing specialty in each province are currently working in the private sector?
Reply:
Honourable Member, I have repeatedly mentioned that our methods of determining the number of posts for health workers cannot be deemed reliable as it is derived from organograms which were drawn up long ago and not based on any scientific tool. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has come up with a new scientific tool called WISN (Work Indicators for Staffing Norms). We have just finished calculating WISN norms for Primary Health Care facilities only. We have just started working out the numbers in hospitals.
WISN will be the only reliable indicator of staffing in the healthcare system.
END.