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Cash injection for rural medics
20/04/2006 20:26 - (SA)
Zinkie Sithole
White River - Government doctors and nurses can expect to get better salaries as the national health department fights to keep them from seeking more lucrative jobs elsewhere.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang told delegates at a health summit in White River on Thursday that health professionals were not refusing to help the nation's poor because they were greedy, but because of the poor conditions in which they were expected to work and live.
"The entire remuneration package is being revised and we will have the first recommendations on what the salary scale should be by July," said Tshabalala-Msimang.
She said the upgrading of state hospitals and accommodation facilities, as well as the revised salary packages, would help improve working conditions for doctors and nurses.
The departments of health, public service and administration and the treasury were jointly revising the remuneration packages.
Lack of interest
The recommended structure then would be presented to the public service bargaining council, which would ensure that a uniform system of pay was maintained throughout government.
In Mpumalanga last year, a vacancy for a pharmacist at Shongwe Hospital, the province's second-biggest, had to be advertised twice because of a lack of interest in working in the deep-rural Nkomazi area.
Dr Percy Mahlathi, deputy-director general of human resources in the national health department, said the department had prioritised improving salaries to avoid such situations in future.
"For now, we are urgently working on the salary package for medical professionals only.
"We will focus on other employees in the health sector once this phase has been completed," he said.
He said the package system would be structured in a sustainable way.
"The structure must not bankrupt the department and be cancelled within two year or three years. It has to be sustainable," he said.
Rural allowances
According to Dr Mahlathi there are more than 220 000 health professionals in South Africa working in the private and public sectors.
Apart from improving the remuneration package, the department also was looking at the rural allowance scheme, which added an extra 37% of a person's salary to their remuneration package.
However, Dr Mahlathi said it would take more than an improved salary to attract and secure top-quality professionals to work in the country's most-isolated areas.
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