The ANC welcomes the move and commitment by the Gauteng department of health and social development to increase the intake of nursing students in the next five years to help build an effective health system. The department is looking at increasing the intake of student nurses by close to 400%, with 2 660 new nursing students expected to be recruited to start training in 2012.
As such, the department will advertise health science bursaries by the end of August 2011, with the next nurse intake being in January 2012. This is despite the 20% annual increase of students admitted to these colleges for training over the past eight years.
The ANC views health as one of the key priority areas. Therefore this initiative is in line with the ANC's commitment to improve quality standards for both public and private sectors by providing adequate numbers of workers at all levels of the health care system, including with regard to recruitment, training and the filling of vacant posts.