|
|
|
NW nursing colleges to increase intake
Lehuma Ntuane, BuaNews
2007-09-07
Mafikeng - Nursing colleges in the North West are to increase their in-take of students, in order to reduce the shortage of health professionals in the province.
This is part of the resolutions of the Health Consultative Forum held in Rustenburg, which was aimed at finding solutions to improve service delivery.
The provincial Department of Health's spokesperson, Lesiba Molala, said the colleges will start to increase their annual enrollments by 300 more students.
The forum has concluded that the shortage of health professionals can only be met by maximising our in take in our colleges.
We have many posts that remain unfilled and that is affecting our pace of service delivery in both our primary health care and hospitals, said Mr Molala.
The four provincial nursing colleges, Mmaqbatho College of Nursing, Excelsior's Nursing College, Rustenburg Nursing College, and Bophirima Nursing College, have overall produced 1400 health professionals a year.
However, this is not enough to meet the demands of the public health sector in the province.
The department has 1700 funded, vacant posts in the system and the situation has also been exacerbated by the exodus of experienced health professionals to metropolitan areas.
According to the department there are only 6734 nurses in the province, which include professional, chief professional, assistant and staff nurses.
The department, said Mr Molala, will also be offering more bursaries and financial assistance to learners who are interested in the health profession.
We want to lure as many young people as possible to the profession, he added.
Mr Molala said skills needed in the sector include midwifery, psychiatric nursing, primary health care and comprehensive nursing.
Other resolutions adopted at the Health Consultative Forum include:
* an improved plan for 2010 which consists of increasing the number of Emergency Medical Services personnel for the event
* reviewing the HIV and AIDS plan to include public participation
* maximising the use of the primary health care facilities
* reducing the turnaround time of ambulances and
* improving the collection of revenue in hospitals.
Mr Molala said the department will also be increasing their budget spending on capital projects.
The department's Deputy Director General, Andrew Robinson, said in the four districts of the province, it has increased capital projects which will help in building new clinics, renovating health facilities and revitalising hospitals.
In the Bophirima district, we are busy building a R4.7 million hospital which will be completed by early next year and in Bojanala, we have the R200 million Moses Kotane Hospital under construction.
We are confident that all these projects will help us advance and monitor our performance in providing health care services to our people, said Mr Robinson.
The two day consultative forums was attended by health stakeholders including traditional leaders, healers, municipalities, non-governmental organisations, unions, academic institutions, provincial council on AIDS, private sector institutions and senior managers from the department.
|
News
