Timeslive reports that SA is facing the risk of an even more severe shortage of specialist doctors - a scenario that would hit the state and private health sectors hard‚ and one that has the health minister “worried”.  

The SA Committee of Medical Deans says the poor state of provincial health departments "destabilises" academic training of doctors.  It has called for more provinces to be put under national administration and for public hearings into the state of government healthcare.  According to the head of the committee‚ Professor Martin Veller‚ fewer registrars (specialists in training) are likely to be employed by the state in Gauteng after they qualify because positions have been frozen by the cash-strapped provincial health department.  Gauteng trains the highest number of doctors in Africa.  Also, specialists are currently not being hired by the state for the same reason.  This comes as others resign‚ so there could be too few to train registrars.  A doctor in the state service said:  "I would estimate that by 2019‚ Gauteng will be 40-50% down in absolute number of qualified doctors employed in the state.  That's going to collapse an already terrible system further."  

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi met with Prof Veller on Monday over the deans’ concerns.  A day later‚ he told a news conference that if Gauteng did not hire enough doctors and specialists in senior positions‚ he would consider putting its health department under administration.  On Tuesday, the health ombudsman described healthcare in SA as being on the brink of collapse, which Motsoaledi disputed.

• Read this extensive report by Katharine Child in full at Timeslive
• Read too, Public healthcare system is very distressed, but not collapsing, says Motsoaledi, at News24
• And also, Medical deans’ prescription for SA’s public health emergency, at BusinessLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page