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Mpuma to get Tunisian doctors
22/01/2008 20:16 - (SA)
Pretoria - The Mpumalanga Health Department was scheduled to receive 18 Tunisian doctors, it said on Tuesday.
"We'll be accepting them not too long from now," said provincial spokesperson Mpho Gabashane.
Gabashane said the doctors would be deployed to areas that were in "great need" of mainly primary health care.
The province had already received nine Cuban doctors as well as eight Iranian doctors who arrived in 2006.
Gabashane said that the new doctors - as well as the ones that were already in the province - had helped the province.
"The ones who are already here don't have a problem working here, they have adjusted to local conditions," he said.
Meanwhile the provincial MEC for health William Lubisi said that the department had worked on a recruitment and retention strategy to lure health professionals into the province because of a shortage of doctors.
Strategy to lure doctors
There was a shortage of doctors within the province as a result of a national decision to reduce theoretical training for doctors.
"We have now worked on a recruitment and retention strategy to lure health professionals into our province. We know that there is a disparity in terms of salaries paid to health professionals by provinces.
"This situation leads to health professionals leaving to go to more urban and better paying provinces at the great expense to rural and lesser paying like ours," said Lubisi.
He said that because the province had no universities it made it hard for it to retain young doctors who worked and studied. He said this resulted in doctors moving to other provinces.
He said that the strategy - which was now at provincial government level for consideration - was looking into the push factors that drove doctors to move to other provinces.
He said that because the province had no universities, it made it hard for it to retain young doctors who worked and studied.
Infrastructure was also a problem as most of the province's health care facilities were in rural areas.
"Our view is that private doctors have a huge role to play in a very dynamic partnership in the provision of quality health care to all our people in the province," said Lubisi.
Home grown skills
Lubisi added that smaller hospitals would be "beefed up" with ambulances to transport patients who needed higher levels of care to other hospitals.
Lubisi said that the department had also increased the number of bursaries awarded to students to study health and social sciences.
"This will ensure that in the medium to long term we are able to have home grown skills, that are likely to be in the province for longer periods, to service our people," said the MEC.
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