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E Cape needs surgeons - top doc
27/06/2006 21:00 - (SA)
Port Elizabeth - Health care in the Eastern Cape faced a collapse in surgical services if a shortage of general surgeons continued, reported Dispatch Online on Tuesday.
It quoted Association of Surgeons in SA (Assa) chairperson Dr Sats Pillay as saying: "I have nobody to train as surgeons."
Pillay, who is head of surgery at Port Elizabeth's Livingstone Hospital, said Assa had raised the issue with the health department and the SA Medical Association.
Out of 30 junior doctors in East London's Frere Hospital, only 10 wanted to specialise as general surgeons.
The figure at Mthatha's Nelson Mandela Hospital was worse, where only six out of 30 junior doctors working there wanted to become general surgeons.
Difficult to attract doctors
At Livingstone, where Pillay teaches, six out of 28 doctors wanted to specialise in general surgery.
Pillay said: "The Eastern Cape is worse off than the other provinces. It is difficult to attract doctors to work here."
Pillay said South Africa was producing only 25 newly qualified general surgeons a year, well below the 60 to 70 needed to provide the services needed.
"Twenty years down the line, there will be no general surgeons in South Africa if this trend continues."
- SAPA
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