The deployment of over 300 intern doctors to the Northern Cape is expected to bring much-needed relief.
Provincial Health MEC Fufe Makatong has lamented the ratio imbalance between doctors and patients. A welcome ceremony was arranged for the new recruits who will be deployed to rural regions of the province.
“We are seeking to achieve to try and address the doctor-patient ratio, but not only on medical officers … You would remember also that with our processes, we said with the intake of nurses in January we wanted to prioritize midwifery to alleviate the pressures.”
The new recruits include medical doctors, clinical psychologists, pharmacists and professional nurses who are ready to start saving lives.
“I feel very privileged because it is not a lot of people who can get the opportunity that I got, and especially for me, it’s special because I’m from the Northern Cape. So, I might get to work at home,” says one intern.
“So, I’ve just finished an internship. I’m a community service doctor now and I would be placed in the Department of Cardio Surgery. It’s the surgery of the heart and the lung.”
More than 100 of the recruits will be placed at Kimberley’s Robert Sobukwe Hospital the provincial referral facility.
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