Question NW772 to the Minister of Health
12 April 2024 - NW772
Clarke, Ms M to ask the Minister of Health
(1)What is the current vacancy rate for each medical profession, including but not limited to (a) doctors, (b) nurses, (c) physiotherapists, (d) occupational therapists, (e) psychiatrists, (f) psychologists, (g) environmental health practitioners and (h) community health workers; (2) whether there are contingency plans in place for each of the units without functioning refrigerators; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so; what are the relevant details?
Reply:
1. The table below reflects vacancy rates as provided by provinces with the Nurses being a consolidated rate across the 3 different categories of nurses (namely: Professional, Registered and Assistant).
|
PROVINCIAL VACANCY RATES (%) |
|||||||||
|
Category |
EC |
FS |
GP |
KZN |
LP |
MP |
NC |
NW |
WC |
|
Medical Officers |
15.0 |
23.7 |
11.4 |
4.9 |
20.37 |
9.62 |
15.2 |
22.0 |
5.85 |
|
Nurses |
9.0 |
26.5 |
11.2 |
11.2 |
2.96 |
8.0 |
17.4 |
39.0 |
7.39 |
|
Physiotherapist |
18.0 |
38.8 |
11.0 |
10.4 |
2.03 |
7.0 |
11.8 |
26.0 |
1.73 |
|
Occupational Therapist |
26.0 |
39.7 |
14.3 |
27.7 |
3.36 |
16.0 |
30.3 |
56.0 |
10.5 |
|
Psychologist |
17.0 |
17.7 |
21.4 |
36.3 |
4.55 |
7.0 |
41.7 |
61.0** |
9.90 |
|
Psychiatrist |
20.0* |
30.0* |
15.4 |
87.9 |
73.0 |
50.0 |
50.0 |
8.89 |
|
|
Environmental Health Pract. |
14.0 |
25.5 |
8.9 |
12.6 |
6.90 |
7.0 |
11.1 |
13.0 |
N/A |
* Rate reflecting Medical Specialists combined
**Inclusive of the Vocational Counsellors
Community Health Workers are contract workers that are appointed on annual contract against abnormal appointments (extra ordinary staff) and vacancy rate not applicable. Furthermore, in the Western Cape the category is appointed through agency and NGO organisation and not accounted for directly under the department.
Provincial Departments are in the process of identifying positions which will be filled during the 2024/25 financial year through the Annual Recruitment Plan (ARP). Once the process is concluded and costed, within the available budget, provinces will be in a position to indicate which positions will be filled by when and recruit accordingly with adverts. There has also been ongoing communication with Provincial Departments of Health to establish the extent of the challenges experienced in this regard.
Table 1: Compensation of employees allocation to provinces
|
R Thousands |
Financial Year |
||
|
Programme |
2023/24 Adjusted appropriation |
2024/25 Revised Baseline |
|
|
Eastern Cape |
20 028 901 |
20 011 717 |
|
|
Free State |
8 961 049 |
9 516 387 |
|
|
Gauteng |
38 159 905 |
40 078 685 |
|
|
KwaZulu-Natal |
33 031 152 |
32 976 479 |
|
|
Limpopo |
16 441 824 |
17 351 170 |
|
|
Mpumalanga |
10 927 652 |
11 706 368 |
|
|
Northern Cape |
3 767 510 |
3 740 702 |
|
|
North west |
10 567 007 |
11 281 207 |
|
|
Western Cape |
17 340 851 |
18 055 309 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total |
159 225 851 |
164 718 024 |
END.