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DENOSA supports the Call to Action for Greater Investment in Nursing globally to achieve goal 90-90-90
Media statement
Thursday, 21 July 2016
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) joins hands with the global nursing groups in the Call to Action at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, for Greater Investment in Nursing to achieve 90-90-90 objectives, and calls on all community to demand hiring of nurses in facilities in preparation for this vision.
The aim of goal 90-90-90 is to reach at least 90% of people with HIV to know their status, and ensure that at least 90% of them are enrolled into the Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART) programme, and that 90% of all people on the ART programme have their viral load suppressed by year 2020.
This call is for every country, state/province, and every district to promote health access, equity and rights for all patients. Organisations behind the Call to Action include DENOSA, ICN, ANAC, ICAP, IAS, ANA, and UNAIDS.
The Call to Action demands adequate staffing, payment of nurses and equipping of all health facilities where communities are served, and it also demands adequate supply of medication, as well as inclusion of nurses in decision-making about health issues in their countries, provinces, and districts.
DENOSA says for the 90-90-90 to be achieved, more nurses must be hired and their well-being in the workplace must be looked at and prioritized. In South Africa, the new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on Test-and-Treat will be implemented in September this year. As DENOSA we are happy with this pro-activeness from our government. However, our concern is that this ambitious plan may come to expose the extent of severe shortage of nurses in the country as this plan will be wholly driven by nurses, who are few and far between in facilities and most of whom carry out the work of two or three other nurses who are not hired. Queues will become longer if more nurses are not hired, and this may result in tensions between community members and nurses who are the face of the system.
DENOSA is calling on community members to assist nurses and all health workers in demanding the hiring of nurses and procurement of medication and equipment in their facilities ahead of the implementation of this plan. Currently the country has 3.4 million people on the Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART) programme, which is the largest programme in the world due to NIMART. Expanding the programme will result in longer life for many patients who are infected by the HIV pandemic in the country.
We call for equitable representation of nurses on policy guidelines and other decision making bodies; and Government to remove economic barriers to nurse-led care in order to guarantee access to healthcare as a human right by addressing social determinants of health.
The shortage of nurses, as well as the low production of student nurses in the few public colleges, has proven be too little for the country and yet HR Planning has been so poor that some of the produced nurses are not absorbed and placed at institutions where their service is greatly needed.
DENOSA calls for reopening of previously closed nursing colleges, equipment of nursing colleges and nurse educators. We also call for establishment of staffing norms countrywide, so that we could start measure the shortage against the norms.
As nurses of South Africa, we demand that the nurses who work overtime because of the shortage must be paid adequately and not have to wait for months to get their money. Safety of nurses in the workplace should be assured at all times.
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
For more information, contact:
Simon Hlungwani, DENOSA President.
Mobile: 079 501 4922
Or
Sibongiseni Delihlazo, DENOSA Communications Manager
Mobile: 079 875 2663
Website: www.denosa.org.za
