Nurses from South Africa – which already has a chronic shortage of them – are among the thousands of local medical professionals being lured to Canadian shores, attracted by guarantees of job security and salaries amounting to millions of rands.
Nurses, GPs, chiropractors and other medical professionals are highly sought after because of their experience and their English language skills, said Canadian immigration expert Nicholas Avramis, who added that there were about 45 000 South Africans in Canada and nearly 3 500 of them were medical professionals.
“Your average nurse in Canada earns R80 000 to R100 000; that’s like a R1m to R1.4m gross salary. Nurses are unionised in each province so they get all their dental covered, they get their healthcare covered, they get their pharmacy covered, and they’re going to have a pension as long as they work the required years. I don’t think a nurse is making R1m in South Africa.”
Avramis said entry-level general practitioners could pocket between R5m and R8m a year.
Based in Johannesburg, Avramis has been recruiting locals through his company, Beaver Immigration, for 10 years.
South Africans, he told IOL, were favoured over staff from other countries – like India – because of their English language skills, similar outlook on life and their adaptability.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) confirmed that apart from Canada, other developed countries like the UK, US, Saudi Arabia, Australia, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates were also recruiting South African nurses.
Denosa spokesperson Sibongiseni Delihlazo warned that South Africa already had a severe lack of nurses – who have to deal with long hours, low pay, burnout, anxiety, depression and inadequate support.
“The shortage is a global phenomenon and … for the developed world, zooming in on countries like ours is a cheaper way of getting this workforce without producing it themselves. It’s a disaster because in South Africa, we are already producing low numbers of nurses yet even those low numbers don’t get absorbed here, in the public sector. In the next 14 years almost half the nursing population in this country will have retired.”
He said there were 270 000 nurses on the South African Nursing Council’s register but those included nurses in the public and private sectors, retired or in management as well as those who had left the country.
A study by the World Health Organisation and the International Council of Nurses in 2020 showed a huge shortage that would reach “catastrophic levels globally” by 2030.
Doctors also fleeing
Dr Cedric Sihlangu, general secretary of the South African Medical Association Trade Union, warned that the emigration of doctors had a “profound negative impact” on the country’s health system.
This large-scale exodus exacerbated the existing shortage of medical professionals, leading to increased workloads for the remaining doctors, longer waiting times for patients, and a potential decline in the quality of primary healthcare.
Rural and under-served areas were particularly hard hit, he added. as they already had limited healthcare resources.
Factors encouraging doctors to emigrate included unemployment, higher salaries, better benefits and improved working conditions, while many also felt their voices were not heard because the issues affecting them were not given adequate attention.
“For years we have been experiencing challenges with the absorption of medical interns which had been ongoing for a number of years and still not being given adequate attention by the relevant officials.
Most doctors also work in “extremely ill-resourced healthcare facilities, which can be quite daunting, but we see minimal intervention from the government to address this issue”.
“The safety of healthcare workers has also become a challenge that may influence doctors to seek employment abroad, with a rising number of cases of patients assaulting and killing healthcare workers.”
Sihlangu said most South African doctors studied medicine because they wanted to serve their communities
The national Department of Health said doctors left the country for a number of reasons: decreasing salaries, cost-cutting measures, the possibility of mandatory service in understaffed rural areas, as well as rising crime rates.
Spokesperson Foster Mohale said the brain drain to Canada and other countries reduced South Africa’s capacity, particularly in specialised areas, and exacerbated the unequal distribution of healthcare professionals, with urban areas likely to be more affected.
“Training a doctor requires significant investment; when they emigrate, South Africa loses this investment, and the healthcare system faces added costs in recruiting and training replacements.”
Independent on Saturday article – Million rand nurses flee SA (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Nursing Council resists training of new nurses, despite dire shortage, HASA conference told
Surgery catch-up stymied by South Africa’s shortage of ICU nurses
Massive UK nursing shortage sucks in Kenyan, South African and Zimbabwean nurses
Gauteng Health admits to 'critical' shortage of nurses