The South African Nursing Council and Africa Health Placements sign cooperation agreement

This agreement will assist in solving the country's shortage of nurses, which is especially severe in our rural areas. Almost half of South Africa's population lives in these areas, but they are served by only 19% of the country's nurses.

Saul Kornik, AHP's CEO, says the memorandum is an important milestone. "We need to work together to attract more nurses to come to South Africa. We are excited to be partnering with SANC to bring foreign nurses to the country.

"We have already recruited more than 1 400 foreign doctors through our close working relationship with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and we expect our partnership with SANC to be just as fruitful," Kornik says.

"South Africa does not have enough local healthcare workers. We need foreign nurses to provide quality care to patients," he says.

The aim of the agreement is to improve nurse staffing in rural areas, while maintaining the standard of nursing and midwifery care which SANC is mandated to uphold. SANC and AHP will work together to bring more nurses to South Africa and to place these resources where they are needed the most.

AHP will provide a full-time administrative staff member to SANC's foreign-qualified nurse registration department to assist in the processing of registration applications. AHP will pre-screen its applicants to ensure only complete documentation is submitted to SANC.

Tendani Mabuda, SANC's Registrar, said that "through the cooperation agreement, SANC and AHP will work together to make the registration process efficient and on par with other countries to attract scarce and skilled personnel without compromising quality and nursing standards".

SANC will ensure no special preference is given to applications received from AHP over applications received directly by SANC. Applications will be dealt with on the principle of "first in, first out".

SANC and AHP will also form a management task team, comprising of two representatives from each party, to co-manage the implementation of the agreement.

The South African Nursing Council protects the public by setting education, practice and research standards, monitors nursing and midwifery practice, formulates and ensures the implementation of nursing and midwifery legislation and policies in response to social needs, and collaborates with relevant partners for holistic healthcare.

Africa Health Placements is a non-profit organisation recruiting foreign and local healthcare professionals for the country's public healthcare facilities in rural and underserved areas. Since AHP's inception in 2005 the organisation has placed 2 500 healthcare workers.