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300 student doctors for Mpuma
13/03/2008 20:18 - (SA)
Sydney Masinga
Middelburg - Three hundred student doctors were welcomed in Mpumalanga on Thursday to work as interns for a year.
Another 27 community service doctors who will work in state hospitals and clinics for the next two years, were also welcomed.
"The department has (acknowledged) the acute shortage of health professionals in the province, and the potential effects of this to service delivery," said department spokesperson Mpho Gabashane.
The province currently has only 700 qualified state doctors to serve a population of 3.5 million people. It needs 9 000.
"We have put in place, short, medium and long term interventions to address all the pull and push factors that limit our capacity to recruit and retain health professionals in the province," Gabashane said.
He said that in the short term, the department would consider increasing the salaries of health professionals to bring them on par with better-paying provinces.
Revamping hospitals
"We are also looking at offering bursaries to either specialise or improve qualifications," he said.
He said the department already had a partnership with universities, in particular the University of Pretoria, to offer Family Medicine studies to doctors who want to specialise in family medicine.
In the medium term, the department has increased the number of bursaries offered to local students who want to study medical sciences at local universities.
The department has also sent 30 students to Cuba as part of a bilateral agreement between South Africa and the Cuban government to study medicine and medical engineering.
To address complaints about poor accommodation facilities for health professionals, the department has started revamping or building new accommodation at certain hospitals.
"We have also ensured that no health facility is built without accommodation facilities," Gabashane said.
During the welcoming ceremony in Middelburg on Thursday, health MEC William Lubisi, said the department wanted to become the employer of choice in the province.
Trying to retain health workers
"We will continue to address all the impediments to realise this goal of being the employer of choice," said Lubisi.
He said that once the student doctors and community service doctors had completed their internships, it was hoped they would choose to continue working in Mpumalanga.
"We cannot continue to lose health professionals who are willing to stay in our province. I have therefore made it my personal responsibility to ensure that we retain all these professionals at our health facilities," he said.
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