The DA has proposed that the government allow medical practitioners in training to be placed at private health facilities for internship or community service in an effort to increase the talent pool and reduce the number of medical graduates sitting at home.
The DA, in a private members bill gazetted last week and put forward by its health spokesperson Michele Clarke, said medical practitioners should be able to apply to private health facilities as well as public ones for placement.
The proposed bill, the DA said, would be cost effective for the state and bring more people into a system that was in dire need of professional nurses and doctors.
“Should a person be placed at a private health facility, that facility will cover the cost of employment, rather than the department of health. With the addition of private health facilities, a strong private-public partnership will develop in the healthcare sector,” reads the explanatory note of the draft bill.
“The non-placement by the national department of health and the Internship and Community Service Placement (ICSP) of intern and community service medical practitioners has become a growing issue in SA due to insufficiently funded posts in public health facilities.
“To become a medical practitioner in SA, the Health Professions Act, 1974, provides that a medical practitioner must complete one year of community service at a public health facility, and in the case of doctors, the community service must be preceded by a two-year internship at a public health facility before they can become qualified.”
In October reports emerged there was a shortfall of more than 200 community service posts for medical graduates in the upcoming 2025 annual cycle, meaning scores of newly qualified medical professionals will not have guaranteed placements for their mandatory community service, leaving them frustrated.
Private hospital group Netcare has warned that the healthcare system’s reliance on nurses over the age of 50 and the failure to attract new nurses needed to be addressed urgently.
The company said that between 2012 and 2022 the rate of population growth in SA significantly outstripped the number of enrolled nurses and midwives registered with the SA Nursing Council (SANC) and the decrease in approved student numbers in private and public sectors, coupled with shifting regulatory requirements, contributed to the shortage.
The public has 30 days to comment on the DA’s proposals. Clarke said, adding that during the January and July placements many doctors and other medical practitioners, including nurses, physiotherapists and radiologists, were placed late, at the last minute or not at all into public health facilities.
“If not placed in community service or internship, there are no real alternatives for these medical practitioners in training, and they are left without recourse or employment,” Clarke said in a statement, urging the public to give their inputs.
“Every year, without exception, interns and community service doctors and other medical practitioners struggle with getting placements, despite the department of health’s promises of an effective system. One of the major problems is the perpetual lack of funding to provide posts for all applicants.
“The DA’s bill seeks to address this perennial problem by allowing for placements at private health facilities at the cost of that facility, rather than the department.”
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