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E Cape gets R35m for doctors
02/12/2005 19:04 - (SA)
Cape Town - The Eastern Cape has set aside an additional R35m to recruit doctors and nurses, health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said on Friday.
One of the department's goals was to retain doctors who were finishing their compulsory year of community service, he said.
There was a shortage of 800 doctors in the province.
The department was also looking at the possibility of substantially increasing doctors' post community service year pay of R139 000.
Kupelo said another R5m had been set aside for emergency services, to boost the number of qualified ambulance personnel.
He said health MEC Monwabisi Goqwana would next week hand over for use 87 ambulances, eight specialised emergency rescue vehicles, three 35-seater buses for transporting non-emergency patients, and one rapid response vehicle.
He said there was a general lack of understanding of the province's needs when it came to vehicles.
"We aren't like the Western Cape and Gauteng," he said. "The conditions in the Eastern Cape are actually challenging. The new ambulancs that are being purchased now won't last because of the roads. They will last six months, and then they are just like wagons."
- SAPA
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