Managerial posts cut to hire more doctors

The Limpopo health department has saved enough money from restructuring its staff complement to hire more specialists, but is still grappling such severe personnel shortages that patients are waiting months for operations.

The Limpopo health department has saved enough money from restructuring its staff complement to hire more specialists but is still grappling with such severe personnel shortages that patients are waiting months for operations, according to its health MEC.

The delays are not only traumatic for patients, but raise the risk of medico-legal claims against the department.

Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba is implementing a turnaround strategy that includes an enormous staff overhaul. She has slashed the number of senior managerial posts in the head office and moved district managers to more hands-on roles as hospital CEOs, saving enough money to hire 26 additional specialists.

But it is far from enough to meet the demand for services, she said on Monday.

“We still have serious gaps. We need 36 more specialists, 200 medical officers, 250 professional nurses and 200 enrolled and staff nurses. We also need cleaners, groundsmen, porters, laundry assistants and switchboard operators,” Ramathuba said.

The province, home to 5.8-million people, has just one state-employed oncologist, one paediatric oncologist and its sole neurologist works part-time.

More than 3,300 patients are on waiting lists for surgical procedures and 23,000 more need eye operations, she said.

Patients typically wait three to six months for operations, she said. “It is not acceptable,” she said, noting that if patients have to wait months for surgery, it raises the risk of complications and means patients are more likely to sue for damages.

Like most other provincial health departments, Limpopo faces soaring medico-legal claims from patients. Claims against the department in the year to March rose to R4.875bn in 2017-2018, from R2.2bn the year before.

The Treasury has said many provinces have created bloated administrations at the expense of frontline personnel and budgets for goods and services.