South Africa is producing hardly any new medical researchers under the age of 30, Parliament heard today. Head of internal medicine at the University of Cape Town, Bongani Mayozi, told the portfolio committee on health that less than one percent of medical research was being done by under-30s in South Africa. "Six percent of the people producing research in 1990 were under 30-years-old, but by about 2002, we found that there were no young people who are entering the pipeline of producers of research.

"If this trend continues, it means in 10 years time we will have no one else doing research in the country."Mayozi said there was a drastic shortage of specialists in public hospitals. The country for example, had no speech therapists at public hospitals. "We do not have them at all. In our system, we have children as late as the age of 12 who are diagnosed as deaf and needing to be trained."

He said a "systematic underinvestment" in academic health complexes and in the health system had caused the problems. "This is hampering our ability to supply more health care personnel to provide health specialised services. It is also hindering clinical research." A coherent national framework to plan and fund academic health complexes was needed, he said.

"There is a real need for urgent interventions to address this problem."In private health care, the amount of money spent per person had increased from R3 000 in 1996 to about R6 000 by 2006. The public health service had gone in the opposite direction. "We have been remaining in the same position and not increasing our spending. This under-investment is occurring around a background of increasing need." - Sapa