MBOMBELA – The Mpumalanga Department of Health has a vacancy rate of 24 per cent of the funded positions available in the department. This is while the accepted national norm is 10 per cent.
The executive council this week urged the department during their final meeting of the year to speedily fill theses posts. Similarly the Department of Human Settlements has a vacancy rate of 26 per cent. On Thursday health MEC Mr Gillion Mashego told the media that, where there were funds available, positions in the department were being filled. “We have already started,” he says, noting especially that new chief executive officers were speedily being appointed in the province’s hospitals.
All provincial departments are said to have the required selection and recruitment policies in place to fill their vacancies. A moratorium which had been placed on the hiring of new staff in the health department has been lifted.
Ms Refilwe Mtsweni, executive council member, said R277 million was made available to health in the adjustment budget in November, specifically to make new appointments.
“We replace doctors and nurses who are resigning as they go. They know they are in high demand. Sometimes they would reapply for their positions a few weeks after resigning and we don’t have a choice but to rehire them,” he says but added he was unable to provide a breakdown of how far these funds were expected to go in reducing the vacancy percentage.
Ahead of the official Aids Day celebrations held on Saturday, he also denied that there was any crisis in supplying HIV-positive patients with antiretroviral drugs.
“Many of our hospitals have seen a collapse of infrastructure. We acknowledge that it is old. It is a fact. We are putting money towards maintaining and renovating them. But I assure you that we don’t have a crisis with supplying medication in the province.”
