Public Health Care Spending in South Africa and the Impact on Nurses: 25 years of democracy?

Though not adequately acknowledged, it is well known that nurses are the backbone and oxygen of public health care in South Africa. This article focuses on the pattern of public health care spending and its impacts on nursing labour supply and nursing work from 1995. It argues that given the nature and quantity of demand for public health care, the 25 year record of democratic South Africa registers low expenditure on public health care and nurses are at the coal face of this fundamental contradiction. Public health care is selected as a site for feminist economics analysis not only because of the large female labour force involved, but also because of its relevance as a public service for the majority of South Africans, namely women and those for whom they care.