Question NW521 to the Minister of Health
17 March 2023 - NW521
Hlengwa, Ms MD to ask the Minister of Health
With reference to the reported healthcare collapse in the Republic, what (a) is the justification of the situation of junior doctors who are bursary holders and have not been placed in positions by the State, but are being released from their contractual obligations by the Gauteng Department of Health and (b) plans does his department have to address the dire shortage of doctors in the Republic?
Reply:
I would first like to set the record straight that as much as there are challenges in Health sector, it should be noted that the health sector has not collapsed.
a) I have been informed by the Gauteng Department of Health that it is unable to place junior doctors who are bursary holders due to budget constraints. However, there is a process underway to prioritize the human resources needs to place them in institutions across Gauteng.
b) Due to general budget cuts that affects the Cost of Employment (CoE) in the public health sector, there is a systematic process of approving funding and advertisements of posts by Accounting Officers in consultation with Provincial Treasuries supersedes filling of vacant posts to avoid exceeding Cost of Employment (COE) budgets. Therefore, the Department prioritised the filling of the critical and scarce skills within the available budget.
Across all provinces, both clinical and non-clinical posts are continuously identified and vacancies are filled through block adverts and recruitment throughout the year in response to the service demands.
END.