Healthcare plan lauded
Medical fraternity backs Ramaphosa’s move to fill vacant posts
THE DECISION by President Cyril Ramaphosa to immediately fill 2200 critical medical posts has been welcomed by the medical fraternity.
It was part of Ramaphosa’s plan that the government would redirect its resources towards addressing priority areas that include healthcare and education as part of a stimulus package to ignite the economic growth.
Ramaphosa said the R50 billion stimulus plan consisted of a range of measures, both financial and nonfinancial, to be implemented immediately in a bid to ignite economic activity and restore investor confidence.
“To address some of the shortages in our hospitals, funding is being made available immediately to buy beds and linen, while the minister of health and the National Health Council will immediately fill 2200 critical medical posts, including nurses and interns,” Ramaphosa said.
The Hospital Association of South Africa welcomed the announcement.
“In addition, our members are looking forward to making a positive contribution to the jobs summit mentioned by the president during his statement. We welcome his view that the summit should result in practical and implementable initiatives that deliver jobs for South Africans.
“We urge all South Africans to respond to the president’s challenge to find ways to move our economy forward into growth collaboratively, and we are supportive of the president’s willingness to include the private sector in the planned economic stimulus measures,” said Mark Peach, the executive head of public affairs.
The chairperson the South African Medical Association, Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, said: “We welcome that announcement because in previous years we have been promised posts but they do not materialise. We also hope that there are funds available for this bold new plan.”
Earlier this month a report released by the Board of Healthcare Funders of South Africa painted a bleak picture of healthcare professionals leaving the public sector for the private sector.
The report measures the number and distribution of healthcare professional providers registered on the practice code numbering system during the period between January 2000 and December last year.
It was unclear what was causing this, but some suggested reasons included emigration and leaving private practice to work elsewhere in the healthcare sector.