The health department has outlined the reasons for being unable to employ a large number of qualified medical doctors, saying the department does not have the budget.
Members of the SA Medical Association Trade Union marched in four provinces last week, to highlight the plight of unemployed doctors.
Some public healthcare facilities are operating on skeleton staff, negatively impacting the quality of medical care provided to patients.
The department’s Deputy Director-General Percy Mahlathi says the major problem is that they don’t have enough budget.
“We need doctors in the public health sector, in hospitals, but we depend on a budget that gets allocated by the national treasury to the provinces. So, the provinces allocate money for various health professionals. If we do not have enough budget, we cannot employ more people because you can’t employ somebody and say I don’t have the money to pay you,” he said.
Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) has urged government to allocate more finances to employ more doctors. Samatu marched in four provinces last week to highlight the plight of unemployed doctors.
Some public healthcare facilities are operating on skeleton staff, negatively impacting the quality of medical care provided to patients.
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