Potential outbreak in EC gives opportunity to unemployed nurses

The provincial government will hire unemployed nurses on a year-long contract basis in its efforts to bolster its workforce in its fight against the coronavirus.

The nurses, who will be selected from the provincial unemployment database, are expected to undergo training at beginning of April.

Their practical training normally took up to two weeks, health MEC Sindiswa Gomba’s spokesperson, Judy Ngoloyi, said.

Earlier this week, premier Oscar Mabuyane said nurses would be assigned to work in field hospitals in the province and 2,000 would undergo training.

Ngoloyi said the recruitment process should start sooner but “as you know in an institutional government these processes take its time”.

“Some of them [nurses] have been in the database for a long time and this opportunity will make a difference [in their lives]. It is a very good thing.”

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA has welcomed the decision to hire the unemployed nurses.

The union’s Eastern Cape spokesperson, Sibongiseni Delihlazo, said it was aware of Mabuyane’s announcement “because it has been our cry that the department needs to hire nurses because of the shortage [of nurses] in health care facilities”.

Delihlazo said the pandemic was likely to worsen the situation at facilities.

“But preventive measures in some facilities like All Saints in Engcobo are encouraging, and management is inclusive in consulting stakeholders there,” he said.

The facility at Engcobo made it a point that patients who entered wore masks, and “this starts from the gate”, Delihlazo said.

“Because we have been concerned about the state of readiness especially at rural facilities, it would appear that many facilities in rural areas in the province are getting ready.”