Children suffer as nursing staff crisis grows

AS young patients were being neglected, surgeries delayed and specialist units faced meltdowns because of desperate nursing shortages at Port Elizabeth's public hospitals, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) yesterday said thousands of nursing positions remained vacant in the province.

Sources at Port Elizabeth Public Hospitals said yesterday that children, sick babies, patients who required specialist assistance and those needing surgery were bearing the brunt of the shortage.

Denosa Eastern Cape head Kholiswa Tota said there had been a stream of resignations from members who were burnt out. The Eastern Cape Denosa provincial congress heard last weekend that it was believed there were about 9000 posts vacant in the province, although the exact number was uncertain.

But Health Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said that Denosa's statistics were grossly exaggerated.

He said the department had only 799 vacant positions. - Estelle Ellis