Question NW760 to the Minister of Health

Reply:

1. The honourable member should note that nurses do not register with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), but with the South African Nursing Council (SANC).

(a)-(b) As per the information received from the SANC, the total number of nurses whose membership was terminated or their names removed due to their registration lapsing is 21 332 over the period of 2021 to 2022, as per the table below. The reasons are also reflected in the very table below.

Table 1.

	Reason for removal
Province	Deceased	Removed - Administratively	Removed - At own request	Removed - Disciplinary	Removed - Non-payment of annual fee	Grand Total
Eastern Cape	14	2	8	1	3020	3045
Free State			3		1086	1089
Gauteng	24	3	32	5	5257	5321
KwaZulu-Natal	39	5	27	0	4708	4779
Limpopo	16		2	3	1622	1643
Mpumalanga	2	2	1	0	929	934
North-West	8		5		1362	1375
Northern Cape	1		0	1	343	345
Outside RSA			4		84	88
Western Cape	7	6	21	0	2679	2713
Grand Total	111	18	103	10	21090	21332

2. In order to assist nurses with their lapsed registration, the Department has successfully signed Resolution 3 of 2019 at the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council (PHSDSBC) which is an agreement on payment of annual statutory registration fees in respect of health and social development professionals (including Nurses)

The objective of the Resolution amongst others is to:

- Introduce mandatory deductions of professional registration fees from salary of employees by PERSAL as required by the respective statutory professional bodies in the Health and Social Development Departments.

- Assist in the monitoring of potential risks and compliance with registration requirement for appointment and practice as stipulated in the respective Statutory Professional bodies in the departments

END.