KEETMANSHOOP – The Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Richard Kamwi, has blamed bureaucracy for the delay in registered nurses’ training in the south which was supposed to have commenced at the Keetmanshoop Regional Health Training Centre in April this year.
According to Kamwi, he was at pains to understand why the nurses’ training centre has not yet been opened despite the fact that funds were availed by the finance minister.
“Cabinet has approved the training that was supposed to start in April already, but when asking here and there – it is just excuses, excuses from the officials. Textbooks are in place, and the finance minister already said the funds are there, why we cannot start . . . only others can tell you. I no longer want to go to the finance minister, because these excuses are just hogwash,” Kamwi fumed. “It pains me and in the end I am the one blamed, someone just does not want to do their job,” he said clearly very upset.
Kamwi also said Namibia has a 50 percent shortfall of registered nurses, adding that nurses currently employed have a high workload and are clearly overworked.
“According to the Governor of the //Karas Region, Bernadus Swartbooi, his office has been flooded by parents who threatened legal action because their children are left out in the cold with no indication as to when the training will kick off.
“It is a critical situation. It has been a while now that parents come to ask about the training and when it will start. Some of them quit their jobs to be trained and now they are still waiting for training that was supposed to start in April already. People were recruited but even the recruitment has been stopped now,” he explained.
Last year in October, Kamwi announced plans to introduce a three-year diploma course for registered nurses to address the shortage of registered nurses in the country.
Recently local media highlighted the general shortage of nurses affecting the //Karas Region, where there is a shortage of 27 registered nurses and nine enrolled nurses.
According to these reports 29 of the 54 registered nurses employed in the region are not Namibian.
Attempts to reach the Head of the Keetmanshoop Regional Health Training Centre, Elvin Claasen, proved futile.
BY Jemima Beukes