The South African Nursing Council (SANC) has denied media reports that they have been blocking the training of new nurses by private hospitals.
According to Business Day, Netcare used to train around 200 nurses per year. However, they add this has dropped to around 80.
Dr Kobie Marais, Director for nursing education and training says at the beginning of 2020, nursing education was moved into the higher education stream. This resulted in changes to the accreditation process for nursing education in the country.
Previously, the SANC had the sole authority of accreditation when it came to nursing education. However, since nursing education was moved into the higher education stream, the council for higher education also oversees the accreditation of nursing education.
Marais says this has resulted in an increase in waiting times for colleges’ nursing education courses to receive accreditation. This is to ensure that standards in healthcare are maintained.
They explained the country is in need of nurses with specialty qualifications, adding that there is not a shortage of general or junior nurses. Private hospitals and training colleges can only currently train general nurses which are not currently experiencing a shortage.
They add that an average of between one and three universities are accredited in each province to provide nursing education. This is bolstered by at least one private nursing training college per province.