Netcare frets over nursing shortage as red tape leaves it turning away thousands of trainees

Source: News24, 23/11/2022

Netcare frets over nursing shortage as red tape leaves it turning away thousands of trainees
News24 â€` 23 November 2022

Netcare CEO, Dr Richard Friedland, says the group has been waiting for accreditation to train nurses for about three to four years.
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• Netcare says it has been waiting for accreditation to train nurses for about three to four years.
• It used to train about 3 500 nurses a year, and it now takes about 10% of that, turning away thousands of applicants away every year.
• Netcare is opening new hospitals and expects more patients to stay in its hospitals post-Covid-19 and will need more nurses when occupancy ramps up.
With a dramatic fall in the number of Covid-19 patients in Netcare hospitals across the country, SA`s biggest hospital network is watching keenly for whether the country has reached an endemic phase of the virus - which would mean the disruptions that had pushed acute admissions to record lows could be a thing of the past.
But there is one thing out of its control that keeps CEO Richard Friedland and his team up at night: the shortage of nurses in South Africa. Netcare used to train thousands of nurses each year, but as it awaits accreditation, it has been forced to turn away applicants in droves and cut the number of nurses it trains by some 90%.
Growth ahead
Friedland and his team have cause to consider future staffing needs. There are currently only about 60 Covid-19 patients in Netcare hospitals countrywide, and all eyes are on the upcoming festive season to see whether the trend is maintained. If it proves true that SA has entered the endemic phase, the record lows seen as elective surgeries came to a standstill during the lockdowns could be over.
In turn, this means hospital occupancies could remain at levels above 65% or in excess of 70% during weekdays - levels that the likes of Netcare recorded before the pandemic.
Netcare`s acute occupancy had already reached 66% in September and October. The new Netcare Alberton Hospital is already sitting at 85% full-week occupancy. During the presentation of its financial results on Monday, the company guided that it expects patient days to increase by up 7.5% in the absence of Covid-19 disruptions in its 2023 financial year. This could boost its normalised revenue between 9% and 12%.
CEO Dr Richard Friedland is excited about the growth. The group just opened two new hospitals in the year that ended on 30 September, which it needs to fill, i.e., Netcare Alberton Hospital and Netcare Akeso Richards Bay.
But capacity is a concern. `Certainly, the one thing that keeps us awake at night is the number of nurses that are being trained,` Netcare MD Jacques du Plessis told investors during the presentation of the group`s financials.
Netcare used to train around 3 500 nurses a year through its own nursing colleges. Now it is allowed only to train about 10% of that. It is supplementing its capacity by using agency nurses, and it`s coping well now because, at current occupancy rates, its hospitals are not full. The group has also taken all administration tasks out of nurses` duties.
Friedland later told News24 that Netcare has the capacity and willingness to produce the number of nurses it needs should occupancy in its hospitals reach 80% or more. But it has been waiting for permission from the government to do that for the past four years.
`We were the largest trainer of nurses in the private sector. We are still waiting for accreditation and permission to train in KwaZulu-Natal from the government, the Department of Health, and the South African Nursing Council. We`re appealing for these pipelines to be open because we have thousands upon thousands of applicants per year that we have to turn away,` he said.
He said the group is experiencing the same problem with IT professionals in terms of being able to train enough data scientists for its needs. And he reckons that this is another `rate limiting` red tape that prevents South Africa`s economy from growing at its potential rate.
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