The North West province has the lowest doctor per patient ratio in the country. The North West University is confident that its intended medical school will yield thousands of skilled health professionals to help alleviate the dire skills shortages in the public health sector.
It has submitted a detailed business plan to the Department of Higher Education.
Just 21 doctors treat 100 000 patients.
“When they are in rural areas, they must be accommodated in decent facilities, in decent accommodation, stay where they feel at home. We provide enough accommodation for them to even bring their families. You are a doctor, you have a wife and children that should be accommodated in terms of the plans that we have. These plans extend to even community centres that we build of late,” said department spokesperson Tebogo Lekgetwane.
Already yielding pharmacists, nurses, dietitians, psychologists and biokineticists, the university says it has the expertise to train medical doctors too.
Entry students will be closely monitored, with career guidance integral to the university’s medical programme, to decrease possible drop-outs.
“Traditionally selection of students takes place on matric results, for most students. But this will offer an extra year where a student will be embedded in a fundamental way, within communities, within a healthcare environment. And their response, because… what does a youngster know about being a doctor or a pharmacist? it will give them an opportunity to decide: yes, this is for me, or no, it isn’t for me. So it will also be beneficial for the students to be exposed at a fundamental and important level,”said NWU’s Prof Andrew Robinson.
Apart from rural allowances, the provincial department is providing accommodation in an attempt to keep specialists from migrating to cities.
Up to 3 000 South African medical students will return from Cuba later this year, and will be placed at hospitals across the country for community service.
