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'One nurse for 90 patients'
15/08/2007 14:55 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Staffing woes at Port Elizabeth's Dora Nginza Hospital had deteriorated to a nurse-patient ratio of one to 90, The Herald Online reported on Wednesday.
"The situation is a crisis. We are 45% down on the required staff complement. We now have one nurse to 90 patients," said Dr Fred Rank, clinical governance head of the Port Elizabeth hospital complex.
"In the casualty ward we have two nurses attending to about 30 patients and in the maternity ward two or three midwives attending to about 10 women giving birth at any given time."
Rank was briefing a visiting National Council of Provinces (NCOP) delegation on Tuesday.
Staff shortages were causing long delays in treatment and queues of people waiting for hours in hospital corridors.
"The problem is compounded by the fact that they have now cut down on the training of professional nurses and are concentrating on nursing assistants," Rank said.
"The salary is very low and no one wants to join the nursing profession. That is why they are running overseas. We are facing a real crisis."
Medical staff often doubled as porters and cleaners because the hospital was so short-staffed.
By the end of June it had 1 200 nursing staff, but this had dropped to just 800, Rank said.
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