Cape Town - Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla said his department has put in place mechanisms to ensure that the next batch of 2 563 community service doctors were allocated and appointed to positions within a reasonable period in 2022-23.
Phaahla said the total cost to employ the 2 653 community service doctors for both the 2022 mid-year cycle and 2023 annual cycle was estimated at more than R826.6 million.
He was responding to parliamentary questions from DA MP Haseena Ismail, who asked how many doctors would be doing their community service and whether they had already been placed for the 2022-23 financial year.
Ismail also enquired about what the department intended to do to ensure that all community service doctors, nurses and interns were placed timeously in future.
In his response, Phaahla said a projected 2 653 medical doctors must do their community service for the mid-year cycle starting on July 1, and the annual cycle starting in January, 2023.
“… 124 doctors allocated to the mid-year cycle are expected to commence duty on July 1, 2022 and 2 529 doctors are to be placed in the annual cycle expected to commence duty on January 1, 2023 provided they meet the registration requirements with the Health Professions Council of South Africa,” he said.
The minister said in the annual 2022 cycle that started on January 1 to December 31, 2022 a total of 2 176 medical doctors have been placed to do their community service.
“All eligible applicants who met the requirements to perform community services from January 1 to April 1, 2022 have been successfully allocated and have since commenced duty in public health facilities,” he said.
Phaahla said the department acknowledged that due to budget challenges in the past few years, the results were released almost two weeks before the work commencement date, which inconvenienced the movement of some applicants.
“The department has since put mechanisms in place to ensure that all South African citizens and permanent residents’ future applicants are allocated and appointed into positions within a reasonable period, at least a month before their work commencement date,” he said.
Cape Times