Question NW2831 to the Minister of Health
28 September 2022 - NW2831
Hlengwa, Ms MD to ask the Minister of Health
With reference to his reply to question 271 on 17 March 2022 in which he gave a breakdown of the number of nurse vacancies in the provinces with KwaZulu-Natal having the highest number of vacant posts for nurses, (a) what progress has been made to address the vacancies, (b)(i) how was the budget adjusted to employ more nurses in the provinces and (ii) what is the breakdown of how funds were shifted to provide for the budget adjustment and (c) what (i) is the total number of vacancies still vacant in each of the provinces respectively and (ii) measures were put in place to further decrease the numbers?
Reply:
According to the information received from the Kwazulu-Natal Provincial Department of Health-
a) There has been no further allocation towards compensation of employees (COE) for us to address actual vacancies of nurses in the Province, However, to ensure that there are minimal disruption of services, the Provincial Department has introduced several interventions to address the shortage of health workers in health facilities and this amongst others includes –
- Increased hours of work for health workers those that are working part-time to full time and approved overtime for permanent serving staff,
- Continues to engage with the Provincial Treasury for approval to fill posts in the current financial year
- Appointed 671 community service professional nurses to underserved and rural areas
- Redistribution of personnel to areas where the vacancy rate is higher to balance the equation, .
(b) (i) There were no budget adjustment instead the Department is experiencing further budget cuts.
(ii) As mentioned above on b(i), no budget adjustments were made.
(c) (i) The total number of nurses vacancies in KwaZulu-Natal is currently 6 435 details as per the table below:
|
SPECIFIED RANKS |
TOTAL |
|
Nursing Assistants |
1011 |
|
Professional Nurses |
3086 |
|
Staff Nurses |
2338 |
|
Grand Total |
6435 |
(ii) Measures put in place by the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Department of Health .
END.