BuaNews (Tshwane)
22 July 2007
Tshwane — North West Premier Edna Molewa, has appealed to health professionals to apply for vacant posts in the province, and for those already in the province to stay.
Recently, the MEC for Health, Nomonde Rasmeni, confirmed that the province had over 1700 vacant posts "and the reality is that we are unable to completely fill these vacant posts owing to very few numbers of graduates we are receiving."
This as nurses and doctors across the country shun working in rural areas, preferring to work in cities or abroad.
Some of the critical health skills that are in demand include comprehensive nursing and midwifery, psychiatric nursing science, clinical nursing science, health assessment, treatment and care.
With the current review of the remuneration packages of health professionals, Premier Molewa said nurses who opt to go to rural areas stand to benefit from an improved package.
The package will take into consideration the nurses' scarce skills; provide appropriate accommodation facilities, allowance as an incentive for working in rural areas and uniform allowance.
Ms Molewa said the province's quest to build an effective health system could be undermined by a lack of health professionals.
"To build a humane health system that excludes no one requires a cadre of health professionals with requisite skills and commitment."
Her hope, she explained, is that there would soon be a doctor where there was none, "and that preventable diseases that continue to ravage our rural communities will be prevented and the humiliation of long waiting periods in our health care institutions will come to an end".
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