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Private hospitals hire Indian nurses
Lyse Comins, The Mercury
2008-07-11

Major private hospital groups in South Africa are importing staff from India to quell the dire shortage of qualified nurses facing the country. Hospital groups like Netcare, Life and Medi-Clinic said yesterday that Indian nurses, male and female, were highly skilled, fluent in English and dedicated to the profession.

Indian nurses had applied in their thousands for positions at private hospitals and clinics. The health department and private hospitals have estimated there is a shortage of between 28 000 and 45 000 nurses because the country is not producing enough qualified staff. According to the South African Nursing Council, there are about 103 800 registered nurses in the public and private sectors, up 12% from 91 011 in 1998.

Netcare nursing director Eileen Branigan recently returned from a trip to south India, a major recruitment hub for nurses who, she said, were eager to earn rands and were interested in moving their families to South Africa. Netcare, which operates 54 hospitals and 100 clinics, has 1 000 vacancies nationally but is experiencing its worst shortage in KwaZulu-Natal. I think there has been quite a sudden expansion of activity with new hospitals opening (in KZN), which has taken staff, and I am also aware from my travels abroad that many nurses working there come from KwaZulu-Natal, said Branigan. There are now 3 200 nurses in training nationally.The national qualified nurse-to-population ratio is 1:235, higher than in countries like the UK, one of the factors that makes these destinations attractive to South African nurses.

In a period of two weeks I interviewed 900 nurses (in India) who want to work here, but it will take us a process of six to eight months to get them registered with the nursing council. We are hoping to bring 300 people from India early next year. We have a corporate permit for 700 nurses. Because of the exchange rate, they can make more money here and send it home than if they worked at home. We are on a major mission to find staff, but it is only a temporary solution because we believe we should be providing work for South Africans, said Branigan. She said Netcare was a member of the Homecoming Revolution, an initiative to lure former South Africans back to the country, and would go to the UK in October to meet nurses there. Netcare had brought back 66 nurses since October 2006, said Branigan.

The shortage of specialised nurses like intensive care unit, trauma and theatre nurses is especially severe and nursing managers say staff are being stretched to work extensive overtime to cope. Life's nursing director, Eloise van Niekerk, said that the group had placed 23 Indian nurses in local hospitals and representatives would return to India in October for another recruitment drive. Medi-Clinic nursing general manager Estelle Jordaan said that the health-care group had received 3 500 applications from Indian nurses seeking work in South Africa. She said many South African nurses abroad could not afford to return and many were working in old-age homes and were de-skilled. Nursing is still a calling in India and they have compassion, so we have brought them to help instill the nursing quality of compassion (in local staff) as well, said Jordaan.

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