R380m set aside to hire health professionals

The Eastern Cape department of health is investing R380.9m in the recruitment of health workers, with the first cohort set to start in April.

The budget for the 2024/2025 financial year is catering to post-community services health workers to provide much-needed services to healthcare facilities.

A total of 508 doctors, nurses and other health professionals will be employed.

On Monday, a group of unemployed Eastern Cape doctors marched on the health offices in Bhisho to seek answers after their last protest.

They have vowed to camp at the office until reinstatement resolutions are met after they were promised jobs by April 1.

A meeting was held between the doctors and senior management to find solutions.

Yesterday, the doctors confirmed they had slept at the department offices and would not leave until the issue was resolved.

“We have not yet received any concrete responses through the meeting we have held.

“We slept here and management is in a meeting,” Dr Sinengomso Xuma said.

He said the management had released a list of advertised posts.

“We are not entirely happy. “We are still here; getting employed would have been something to be happy about.

“If they do not find resolutions to this, we have time and we will still be here, because the budget is there and we do not know what is causing delays,” Xuma said.

Denosa regional executive member Yonela Gxothiwe said they too had not received any formal responses from the department and had given them until April 2 to communicate developments.

“The department is not clear on how many nurses they will be employing and which approach they will be using.

“The only response we have heard over a phone call is that there is a budget and it will be available by the next financial year.”

“They do not write down what they are saying to us and we do not want word-ofmouth [responses].”

Gxothiwe said they had been doing follow-ups and their list of grievances had not yet been answered.

“We have given them up to April 2, and if they do not respond ... we will go and protest again until a resolution unfolds.”

Health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth’s spokesperson, Mkhululi Ndamase, confirmed there was a meeting on Monday at the Dukumbana Building between senior management and some doctors demanding employment.

It was a cordial meeting, he said.

“The department is committed to filling all the vacant funded positions within the available budget. Doctors and other health professionals were employed during the current financial year.

“More doctors, nurses and other health professionals will be employed during the 2024/2025 financial year as the department has a funded annual recruitment plan,” he said.

Ndamase said the issue of post-community services doctors and nurses was receiving the attention and urgency it deserved.

“The department is busy finalising the recruitment of 508 clinicians.

“These include doctors, nurses, psychologists and other professionals.

“The advert for these posts closed in February, and we are hoping that the first cohort will report for duty at the beginning of April.” he said.