The fruits of affirmative action

SA nursing council hopeless

DA MP reports on complaint by foreign-qualified nurse unable to get registration, refers SA Nursing Council to Public Protector.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has received yet another complaint this week about a foreign-qualified nurse struggling to become registered to work as a nurse in South Africa because of uncooperative and obstructionist staff and policies at the SANC (South African Nursing Council) and the Foreign Workforce Management Programme (FWMP).

The DA has written to the Public Protector asking him to investigate this case. With our letter of request we have submitted records of unanswered emails, lost documents, rude responses and refusals to provide basic information, and we have described a process that is riddled with duplications and inexplicable and often incomprehensible requirements. Of countless calls made to the FWMP over many months, the phone was only answered twice.

This is one of many complaints which the DA has received concerning problems with foreign-qualified nurses registering to work in South African hospitals and clinics, despite the fact that there is a flood of medical staff outside of South Africa looking for better opportunities in other countries.

The nurse who has approached us applied for registration with the SANC in November 2007 after deciding to immigrate to South Africa with her partner, who is a South African citizen.

Everything following that has been disastrous. She has been offered employment, and is ready to work, but then faced more than a year of unanswered phone calls, the resubmission of lost documents and other frustrations. She is now ready to give up, and to return to England with her paramedic partner.

The Public Protector is, in terms of the Constitution, required to "investigate any conduct in state affairs, or in the public administration in any sphere of government, that is alleged or suspected to be improper or to result in any impropriety or prejudice". The DA believes that the SANC's inefficiency justifies an urgent investigation.

Statement issued by Mike Waters MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on health.