Two of SA's biggest private hospital groups, Mediclinic and Life Healthcare, are turning to India to recruit nurses for critical posts as they struggle to fill specialist nursing positions.
A shortage of nurses has been compounded by the introduction of a new qualification for nurses and delays in accrediting training programmes.
This year, Mediclinic is recruiting 150 nurses from India to deal with shortages in its hospitals. It was unable to confirm how many nurses it currently employs, but an article published on its website last year said it employed nearly 8,800 full-time nurses in Southern Africa.
"To supplement our training, as an interim strategy, we will continue to recruit senior registered nurses from India," said a Mediclinic spokesperson this week.
Most of these 150 nurses have been employed for three years in operating theatres and intensive care units. The group began recruiting nurses from India in 2005.
Life Healthcare SA, which employs 9,300 nurses, plans to recruit 35 nurses from India this year.
Nursing and quality executive at Life Healthcare SA, Sharon Vasuthevan, said: "SA, unfortunately, has a shortage of specialist registered nurses. Our experience is that nurses from India have an excellent work ethic and provide quality nursing care."
Between 2008 and 2014, Life Healthcare SA employed 135 nurses from India.
Netcare, which has 11,000 nurses, does not have a policy of recruiting nurses from other countries but does employ people who are naturalised citizens and have studied nursing in SA, said Nceba Ndzwayiba, director of transformation at Netcare.
The shortage is unlikely to be resolved soon as a new general nursing qualification programme begins this year after previous qualifications were phased out last year.
This means nurses have to obtain a four-year degree at a university or a diploma, higher certificate or advanced diploma at an accredited nursing education institution.
Vasuthevan said that this year learning institutions are transitioning to new nursing programmes after the previous legacy qualifications, which are not aligned to the National Qualifications Framework, were phased out. She said there had been a delay in South African Nursing Council (SANC) approval of accreditation to nursing colleges for the new qualifications, which meant Life Healthcare SA was only receiving accreditation for two of its seven learning centres for the new qualifications.
Other hospital groups are also waiting for accreditation of their courses.
The SANC did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, an initiative by the Hospital Association of SA (Hasa), which represents private hospital groups, and Business Unity SA, to train 50,000 nurses over eight years appears to have not taken off yet.
At the time the plan was announced, at the Jobs Summit in October 2018, SA reportedly had a shortage of 47,000 nurses.
When asked about the progress of the initiative, Hasa spokesperson Mark Peach said: "National departments, provincial stakeholders and various organisations are thoroughly engaged with the tabled proposal and Hasa is comfortable that progress is being made towards the systematic creation of the required frameworks."
Simon Hlungwani, president of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA, said although it wasn't clear what the total number of nurses in the country was, there was "a severe shortage".
He attributed the shortage to nurses emigrating to the UK, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand, where working conditions were better than in SA due to less exposure to litigation. Other nurses leave to work in pharmaceuticals or as researchers.
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