Joe Faala. (Photo credit: Jaco Marais/Die Burger/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Health Minister Joe Faala has refuted claims that doctors who complete statutory community service programs are struggling to find work.
“It is important for me to point out that while the phenomenon of increasing unemployment among graduates is being experienced in many fields, in the public health field there has been a steady increase in the employment of medical professionals. ” Faala told the media. She was interviewed in Pretoria on Monday.
The minister's comments came after the South African Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) submitted a list of 825 unemployed doctors to the Department of Health (DoH) in January.
The department said it checked the list provided by Samatu with the PERSAL system and found that 694 doctors on the list had just completed their community service by December 2023.
According to the DoH, employment of doctors has increased year by year over the past five years, with approximately 1,472 trainee doctors being hired in 2018 and 2,101 in 2024.
“These increases in recent years have occurred despite funding constraints,” Faala said.
The minister hinted that “budget constraints” were the cause of job losses for medical professionals.
Fahra said state-level health departments, in consultation with the Ministry of Finance, were exploring ways to protect health services by hiring more doctors and improving infrastructure.
The health sector also faced the challenge of a 7.5% pay adjustment agreement at the Civil Service Bargaining Council. Faala said this has not been budgeted for and will result in an increase in salary bills along with benefits.
“The aim is to see if there are areas where existing funding can be reallocated so that we can employ more medical professionals in public health facilities,” Faala said.
Based on Department of Health guidelines, all medical school graduates are required to undertake two years of internship training at a designated health facility accredited by the Health Professions Council of South Africa.
Upon completing their internship, they must perform one year of community service at a facility selected by the National Health Service in consultation with the state health department.
When it comes to social services, priority is given to rural and town hospitals or marginalized areas.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health recorded 46 suspected cholera cases and 5 laboratory-confirmed cases from January 1 to February 1, 2024.
Three of the cases were imported from Zimbabwe, which is currently battling an outbreak of diarrheal disease. The remaining two infected people are brothers and have no history of travel to cholera-affected areas.
Four cases were detected at Limpopo Hospital and Helen France Hospital in Mushina, and one case was also confirmed at Helen Joseph Hospital in Gauteng.
“Local outbreak response teams have been activated, conducting active case finding and contact tracing, and intensifying investigations to identify the source of infection without travel history,” Faala said. .
The ministry urged caution, adding that it remains on high alert against the possibility of a spike in cases at the local level.