Komphela said this at the Dr Reginald Cingo Secondary School in Kroonstad where he was tabling the Health Department’s budget yesterday for the 2018/19 financial year. He firmly stated that nurses must have a certificate in order to practise. 

Komphela was responding to comments made by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) to OFM News last week that a large number of newly qualified nurses in the province who studied with bursaries from the provincial government are unemployed, despite a serious shortage of nurses and medical personnel in the province. 

Komphela says he told the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) that the department is not to blame for the placement delays.

Komphela says some of the nursing graduates have proof of payment, but to date have not received their certificates owing to the delays, which he says are not the Department’s fault. They just can’t employ nurses who don’t have their certificates as yet.

Last week Denosa released a statement asking the National Health Department to intervene in the province after midwives and staff at Pelonomi Hospital’s maternity ward in Bloemfontein forwarded their list of grievances, which include staff shortages, among others, to management.

OFM News