Health Department proud to permanently employ healthcare professionals

LIMPOPO – The Limpopo Health Department is happy to announce the addition of 170 permanent, as well as 1 123 interns and community service healthcare professionals to medical staff across the province.

These appointments are part of the second batch of employments following the previous recruitment of 182 medical officers grade one, amongst others, in October 2022, and the newly recruited individuals are expected to start with their work this week after they complete their recruitment processes.

MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba welcomed the permanently employed clinicians including, amongst others, five specialists grade one mainly in rural hospitals, 162 medical officers grade one and three, clinical psychologists, 32 radiographers, 32 physiotherapists, 26 speech therapists and audiologists and many more to Limpopo’s medical force.

“This recruitment process is the culmination of several months of planning, taking into account the budget to fund posts, determination of number of posts that of health professionals, and allocation of posts per facility until the approval by treasury,” departmental spokesperson Neil Shikwambana said in a statement.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit South Africa, all new appointments were made on six-month contracts, but as things slowly return to normal, the department appointed clinicians on a permanent basis for the first time in three years.

“The third batch of permanent appointments is expected before the end of the financial year, which includes professional nurses who will resume their duties in February 2023,” Shikwambana added.

Ramathuba appointed 1 123 clinicians that is made of 336 medical and pharmacist interns, as well as 791 community service personnel, and gave them a warm welcome upon their recruitment.

“We are excited by this development, since it took us more than three years of engaging with the treasury. We were able to free resources by restructuring of senior administration posts we can do without in head office and district offices and redirected the resources to the appointment of clinicians on a permanent
basis. This will assist a lot in stabilising the department, especially as there were uncertainties from our clinicians who were not sure what will happen when their Covid-19 or community service contracts lapsed. It will also reduce the current shortages, which often result in burnout on the existing staff wherein some medical negligence becomes the results thereof,” Ramathuba said.

Ramathuba implored the newly appointed staff to prioritise treating people with respect all the time.

“We congratulate all the newly appointed staff and commit our support towards them. On the same note, we want to appeal to them to understand that the sector they have studied for has no room for a second chance. The mistakes we make in healthcare are sometimes irreversible and result in death. Therefore, whatever we do, let’s try to give our utmost best. The people we will treat in our public facilities have no other option except us, otherwise many of them will not be in our facilities to seek help. State-of-the-art infrastructure is what I will strive to provide, however state-of-the-art attitude is what I wish, pray, and ask from each one of you. Passion must be your daily driver,” concluded MEC Ramathuba