South Africa July 2006 |
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| Hospital Vacancies Affect Health Care, (Sapa, 2006-07-27):-Vacant posts at hospitals in Mpumalanga have impacted on the province's ability to provide health care, the province's health department said on Thursday. Spokesman Mpho Gabashane confirmed that 1523 vacant positions, as at May 31, included 21 specialists, eight senior specialists, 131 medical officers, 1192 nurses and 171 allied health professionals."The biggest problem is that we are unable to attract professionals to hospitals where good shopping and good schooling can be around 100km away," said Gabashane. "These people are not wanted only in Mpumalanga." He said it was common for professionals to leave after as little as a month. The Democratic Alliance questioned how the government could claim it delivered quality health care in such circumstances.Gabashane the difficulty of filling posts, especially in rural areas, was highlighted last year when 14 nursing positions were advertised in the Mkomazi region. "There was only one application." However, he said more than 15 specialists had been recruited to work at Nelspruit's Rob Ferreira Hospital in the past year. Gabashane said the solution lay in "selling the province as a whole, including its proximity to the beaches of Mozambique," as well as developing facilities and infrastructure. He said the province was fundamentally opposed to recruiting doctors from elsewhere in Africa as it would do those countries' people no favour. "We must not be seen to be a Britain in Africa, poaching these skills." DA MPL Clive Hatch called on the department to implement a rural incentive programme to attract medical skills to the province. Gabashane said that in Mpumalanga, some 494 students from rural areas had been awarded bursaries to study for careers in health, in return for which they would be obliged to work for the province for six years. Hatch further remarked that Mpumalanga had a tuberculosis cure rate that was "shocking". He said information provided by health MEC Pogisho Pasha, following a parliamentary question, disclosed that Mpumalanga had TB cure rates for 2003 and 2004 of respectively 28 percent and 34 percent. "The World Health Organisation has set a targeted cure rate of 85 percent, while the average TB cure rate for South Africa is 52 percent," said Hatch. Gabashane confirmed a cure rate of "around 32 percent", largely accounted for by the fact that patients often either did not complete their treatment or would often check in at one clinic to start it, then move on and not be traced. "There's a high in-take and a low out-take," said Gabashane. Interventions, including the training staff on follow-up work, were in place, he said. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |