Sign up with GoogleBetter get private medical aid
Faced with a dire shortage of nurses, a city hospital recently resorted to dressing a cleaner as a nurse.
This shocking incident emerged as the Western Cape government revealed it had spent R62-million in 18 months employing "freelance" nurses.
A senior source at False Bay Hospital said a domestic worker from the nurses' home was roped in to work on the wards during a weekend shift about four weeks ago.
But the provincial health department says it is training "compassionate and caring" general assistants who work only with qualified nurses and never on their own.
Health Department spokesperson Faiza Steyn said on Monday night that since March 2005 they had spent over R62m on agency nurses, who worked freelance and earned top salaries.
At one hospital, a freelance casualty sister working one weekend shift commands R1 400. Her permanent equivalent, with more than 30 years' experience, clears just more than R4 000 for a month's work.
Groote Schuur Hospital alone, which its head of operations Dr Saadiq Kariem says is much better off than smaller hospitals in respect of nursing shortages, spends R2m a year on agency nurses.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20061003125909259C239908
Faced with a dire shortage of nurses, a city hospital recently resorted to dressing a cleaner as a nurse.
This shocking incident emerged as the Western Cape government revealed it had spent R62-million in 18 months employing "freelance" nurses.
A senior source at False Bay Hospital said a domestic worker from the nurses' home was roped in to work on the wards during a weekend shift about four weeks ago.
But the provincial health department says it is training "compassionate and caring" general assistants who work only with qualified nurses and never on their own.
Health Department spokesperson Faiza Steyn said on Monday night that since March 2005 they had spent over R62m on agency nurses, who worked freelance and earned top salaries.
At one hospital, a freelance casualty sister working one weekend shift commands R1 400. Her permanent equivalent, with more than 30 years' experience, clears just more than R4 000 for a month's work.
Groote Schuur Hospital alone, which its head of operations Dr Saadiq Kariem says is much better off than smaller hospitals in respect of nursing shortages, spends R2m a year on agency nurses.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20061003125909259C239908
