Health sector 'taken seriously'

2009-07-03 22:46

Pretoria - The country will continue to focus on improving conditions of medical professionals and retaining their skills, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told a graduation ceremony on Friday.

"Focus continues to be given to increasing the production of doctors and other health professional categories to address issues of capacity and to minimise maldistribution," Motsoaledi said in a speech prepared for delivery at the University of Limpopo.

Addressing 63 medical graduates who had been trained in Cuba, he said the department was concerned with the current labour unrest as a result of challenges confronting the system.

Taking strike 'seriously'

"We are taking this issue very seriously and engaging all relevant stakeholders to come up with long-term and comprehensive solutions."

He also appealed to the graduates to not compromise the rights of the patients to health care in any way during their careers and to respect processes that were in place to address challenges.

Referring to the recent strikes by doctors over the delay in the implementation of the Occupation Specific Dispensation, Motsoaledi said it would not only focus on improving salaries in the sector.

He said the OSD would focus on issues such as proper career paths within each profession, role of performance assessment, pay progression, implementation of human resources related policies across the provinces and dual career paths for professionals.

Skills in the industry also needed to be retained and staff shortages addressed.

Thanks to Cuba

"There are no easy and immediate solutions to staff shortages. We need to work tirelessly together to beef up mechanisms that are in place to retain critical skills."

Motsoaledi also thanked Cuba for its role in educating the graduates through the Health Co-operation Agreement.

"We are indebted to our Cuban counterparts for remaining truthful and committed to the co-operation agreement signed way back in 1996 to contribute to the Ministry's efforts to address workforce challenges," he said.

To date 212 medical doctors including the 63 graduates present had been injected into the pool of doctors working in the health system. Sapa
 

- SAPA