Pay boost on cards for nurses
21/02/2007 14:32  - (SA)  

Want to know more? Answerit can help.

Budget in brief

Cape Town - Public sector health professionals are to get a R4.6bn shot in the arm over the next three years, according to Wednesday's Budget.

The cash, to be channelled through provincial coffers, will be spent on improving salaries, in terms of a deal which is still being negotiated with unions.

The new deal will be implemented in phases, with priority given to nurses.

In addition, the Treasury says in its Budget Review, the number of health workers in the public sector will be stepped up by 30 000 over the same period.

It says efforts to recruit and retain staff have resulted in an increase of more than 20 000 health professionals over the past four years.

The hospital revitalisation programme, which Finance Minister Trevor Manuel described in his Budget speech as "one of our more successful infrastructure programmes", gets an additional R1bn, taking total spending on the programme to R6.8bn over the next three years.

Overall, health accounts for R62.7bn of this year's total budget of R534bn.

- SAPA

What is this? Yahoo Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Brought to you by OUTsurance Car Insurance
	News24 Headlines on your Facebook profile		News24 on mobile