This after Free State Health MEC, Butana Komphela, earlier this week said that the nursing council had delayed the registration and awarding of certificates to graduates, and the department was unable to hire nursing graduates as a result. 

Free State provincial chairperson, Thibogang Thole, says nurses who have graduated, must complete their community service at health facilities in order to be eligible for employment. He says it is the department that has to submit proof of the completion of a nursing graduate’s community service to the South African Nursing Council, something the department fails to do. Thole says it is not true the nursing council is to blame, because he has recently learned the department only last week forwarded the proof of the completion of community service for nurses who completed their community service in February and March. 

He urges the Department to improve the system if it is not working. In response to Komphela’s statement that he made the problems known to Denosa, Thole says the provincial health department has not engaged with the union since last year when the union marched to the provincial offices to air the grievances. He says they have repeatedly raised issues of staff shortages, yet the department remains non-reactive.

He further adds the union is maintaining its call for intervention from the national health department, a call they made nearly two weeks ago. This comes 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