Independent
Online, 07 November 2002, Brain
drain hits KZN health hard
KwaZulu-Natal's
overworked health department is understaffed by more than 10 000 people, largely
because of vacancies caused by the huge number of qualified nurses who have left
to work overseas.
Inadequate funds and delays in training new nurses to replace those who have
left have also exacerbated the staffing situation in provincial hospitals and
clinics.
But despite the severe constraints under which the remaining health personnel
are now working, the department has made great strides in curbing malaria and
cholera and has made inroads with its HIV/Aids programmes.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday the department had made
far-reaching impacts in the reduction of malaria cases and had almost totally
wiped out cholera in the province.
Briefing the finance portfolio committee during the mid-year budget review
hearing in Pietermaritzburg, Mkhize said his department was short of 10 000
nurses.
The mid-year budget review is a new feature introduced by the committee to beef
up its oversight role and to ensure that funds allocated to the departments are
spent timeously and for their stated objectives.
Understaffing in the health department, includes 6 000 nursing staff and 4 000
in administrative and other specialised areas.
Successes
Mkhize said despite this severe understaffing the department had recorded
"tremendous successes" in its fight against malaria and cholera.
He said two years ago there had been more than 47 000 cases of malaria in
the province, but these had now been reduced by 80 percent to fewer than 9 000
cases.
"That is an achievement done by people who are understaffed. Cholera is now
almost forgotten, but two years ago we had over 120 000 cases of
cholera."
He said his department had also managed to roll out the prevention of
mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids programme (PMCTC) to most of the
hospitals in the province and was now rolling out the voluntary testing
programme with at least 12 000 people tested.
Mkhize said the department was now rolling out the programme of making available
anti-retrovirals to victims of rape in some clinics and hospitals in the
province.
With regard to expenditure, Mkhize said the department had initially projected
for over R400-million expenditure as a result of funds spent in fighting cholera
and preparing for the rolling out of the PMTCT programme.
However, he said there were now strong indications that the department would be
reimbursed either by the national or provincial treasury for this
over-expenditure.
The department was now projecting overexpenditure of
R30 million.