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The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa is appealing to motorists to obey the rules of the road as people take to the roads today for the Easter long weekend.
Denosa said in a statement that the shortage of healthcare workers could pose a serious challenge for emergency patients in various facilities, particularly in semi-rural and rural areas.
“Denosa makes this consistent call during this time of the year because the Easter weekend tends to be one of the most dangerous periods where thousands of people get injured and need emergency medical attention,” said President, Simon Hlungwani.
He said the main contributory factors for high accident rates during Easter are fatigue and impatience on the road.
Hlungwani said the government had just announced that it will not focus on the filling of vacant positions in the short to medium term if they were not “critical” posts.
“Denosa would like to inform South Africans that there is a serious shortage of specialist nurses who are trained in specialist areas like emergency, trauma, ICU, orthopaedic among others,” said.
“This shortage also poses an additional risk to patients because they may not get the required specialist professional care for the injuries they may have sustained.”
