Durban - The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) and the South African Medical Association (Sama) say the Health Department needs to tackle the growing problem of the scarcity of health-care workers.
Health Minister Joe Phaahla said the shortage of health-care workers was threatening the quality and sustainability of health systems in Africa and worldwide.
“Health care is a fundamental human right. But without health workers, there cannot be health services,” he said. The minister was speaking at the Association of Medical Councils of Africa international conference recently.
The chairperson of Sama, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, said the shortage of doctors at public hospitals in South Africa was at a critical stage where the ratio had widened to 0.8 doctors per 1 000 patients.
“The placement of interns and community service doctors who are feeding into the doctor numbers has been parlous, leaving young doctors mentally frustrated as they are unable to practise.”
He said foreign-trained South African doctors were also struggling to be placed. “The situation is even more difficult for foreign doctors who are trying to practise in South Africa.”
The association said a recent study showed that about 40% of the doctors who were part of the survey were considering emigrating.
“The survey included doctors in the public sector and in private practice. An earlier study by the South African Migration Project revealed that about 71% of the doctors who emigrate from South Africa are pushed out of the country by dissatisfaction with their relationships with management,” said Mzukwa.
Phaahla said that migration to “greener pastures”, particularly in the case of professionals with exportable skills, had always occurred and would continue.
He said that doctors were also affected by overtime, poor remuneration, being under-resourced and having poor personal security in place.
Sama demanded that these issues be addressed, otherwise there was a risk that the entire health system would collapse.
Denosa said they had expected the minister to come up with plans to overcome the gross shortage of staff, especially nurses.
“It is the same department that is not employing more nurses while there’s a shortage.”
Acting Denosa provincial secretary Mbali Sabela said this shortage was affecting service delivery.
“The minister comes from the same government that is holding the purse. The minister of health must be the one advancing talks with Treasury about the funds so that the health system doesn’t collapse under their leadership.
“The minister must have a standardised plan of employment of all post-community service nurses. Why do you train them if you can’t employ them?”
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