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DENOSA response to the State of the Nation Address
Media statement
Friday, 12 February 2016
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) notes the State of the Nation Address delivered by President Jacob Zuma last night and hopes more solutions will be provided in the Minister of Finance and Health Minister in the Budget Speech and Budget vote respectively, especially on the issue of severe human resource shortage in health.
DENOSA particularly appreciates the undertaking by government to spend public funds wisely and to cut wasteful expenditure without compromising on the core business of government and the provision of services to our people. DENOSA strongly believes that proper prioritization, planning and budgeting are right at the core of government’s efficient service delivery, and this is the area that must be emphasized by government.
On the health front, DENOSA is concerned that there is a serious confusion in the provincial departments with regards to belt-tightening as most provinces includes the departments of health in their moratoria on hiring of personnel whereby nurses and community service nurses are not hired or placed at institutions where their services are most needed. We believe this is in line with Finance Minister’s previous 2014 Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) and 2015 Budget Speech, which talked of the consolidation of personnel numbers in the public sector.
“DENOSA acknowledges the improvement made in increasing the life expectancy of South Africans by eight and a half years to 62 years since 2005, as well as great strides made in fighting HIV/AIDS. These and the imminent launch of a major campaign on preventative programme amongst by the Minister of Health will need health cadres on the ground to ensure their successful implementation.
“Just as we need more nurses in many wards in facilities, and more nurses trained on NIMART for more roll-out ART, the preventive campaign will equally need more health workers to manage and sustain in a country whose system is still curative where majority of citizens are filling our facilities and many of whom are on chronic medication,” says DENOSA President, Simon Hlungwani.
DENOSA is also pleased with the entry of the state pharmaceutical company, Ketlaphela, into the market in the 2016/17 financial year where it will participate in the supply of ARV to government. We hope this will lower the costs considerably so that more patients could be initiated into the ARV programme in our community healthcare centres across the country.
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Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
For more information, contact:
Simon Hlungwani, DENOSA President
Mobile: 079 501 4922
Website: www.denosa.org.za
Facebook: DENOSA National Page
Twitter: @DENOSAORG
