Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has put specialist nurses, doctors and dentists back on the critical skills list, in a revised version published in the Government Gazette.
The previous version, released in February, inexplicably left healthcare workers off the list, despite SA’s shortages. Their exclusion was all the more baffling since Motsoaledi consistently drew attention to the skills deficit in the healthcare sector when he was health minister between 2009 and 2019.
The 2014 scarce skills list, which the February version replaced, had included healthcare professionals.
The scarce skills list is important because it smoothes the way for employers to hire foreigner nationals to fill the gaps in SA’s workforce.
Foreigners holding qualifications on the list can apply for a critical skills work visa to enter SA. If they secure a job before arriving in the country, the visa is valid for five years; if not, it is valid for a year.
The visa can be renewed, and eligible foreigners may be accompanied by their families.
The amended list includes specialist nurse educators, and nurses who have specialised in midwifery, theatre, psychiatry, critical care, trauma and paediatrics.
It includes a wide range of dental skills, and doctors who have specialised in fields including anaesthetics, cardiothoracic surgery, emergency medicine, neurology, paediatrics, plastic surgery, pathology, radiation oncology and surgery. Public health specialists and pharmacologists are also on the list.
The health department’s 2030 human resources strategy projects a shortage of 34,000 professional nurses by 2025, while research by health consultancy Percept found SA had less than 10,000 full-time equivalent specialists serving the entire country in 2018.
SA’s biggest doctor organisation, the SA Medical Association (Sama), welcomed the inclusion of healthcare professionals on the scarce skills list, but said it was a short-term fix for government’s failure to ensure enough doctors and nurses were trained to meet the country’s needs.
“Most of us [were] incredulous that a former health minister could allow a scarce skills list to leave doctors off when he knows we have a diabolical shortage. Sama thoroughly supports the inclusion of doctors on the scarce skills list, but the bottom line is we don’t train enough doctors,” it said.
SA trains about 2,200 doctors a year, a fraction of the 20,000 trained by the UK with a population 1.25 times bigger than that of SA, it said.
The Hospital Association of SA (Hasa), which represents private hospitals, said the amended list was only the first step. “As the critical skills list is an interim relief measure ... a more sustainable solution is to remove the constraints that prevent the public and private sectors from working at full capacity to train and build a human resource for healthcare skills,” said Hasa spokesperson Mark Peach.
Earlier this week, delegates to the Hasa annual conference in Cape Town heard how the SA Nursing Council (SANC) had sharply curtailed the number of nursing training posts at private nursing education institutions in recent years, including those run by private hospitals.
The SANC has yet to provide a rationale for the cut, according to speakers from Netcare. It had not responded to Business Day’s questions by close of business on Wednesday.
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