Health minister Zweli Mkhize has defended the government’s expenditure on Cuban doctors, saying their remuneration is actually a “saving” since they are paid less than other specialists with the same skills.
The state has thus far spent close to R120m on the salaries of 187 Cuban doctors who arrived in April to help in the response to Covid-19. Their deployment is scheduled to run until April 2021, costing the state R440m for the 12 months.
Mkhize said the state was open to reviewing the deployment and possibly extending it beyond 12 months.
“SA is also preparing for a possible resurgence or second wave [of Covid-19 infections] and deployment will be reviewed based on possible hot spots that are identified,” Mkhize said in a written reply in parliament to a question from the DA, published at the weekend.
He said the remuneration of the Cuban specialists was actually a saving to SA because “even though they are qualified specialists in their field of study and performing duties independently in those fields”, they are remunerated at a lower level of medical officer.
This is as per the agreed-upon registration rules with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) under the Cuba-SA government-to-government agreement.
SA has an acute shortage of infectious disease specialists in public and private hospitals, which has in many instances hamstrung the response to Covid-19.
In April, the SA Medical Association (Sama) said there were plenty of unemployed and retired doctors in SA who could have been recruited by the government before it turned to Cuba. It said SA had more than 15,000 doctors in the private sector, most of whom wanted to be involved but did not have an entry portal.
Mkhize said previously the Cuban doctors had a particular strength in community medicine, an area in which SA was weak.
He also said his department had developed a national database for unemployed health professionals, private medical practitioners and volunteers available to assist during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mkhize said previously the government was looking to fast-track the issuing of work visas to foreign health professionals and expedite their registration to allow them to practise in the country.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.