The Gauteng Health Department has employed more than 4 000 health professionals last year to fill vacancies and sustain the quality of services provided to communities.
Health professionals recruited included dentists, medical practitioners, specialists, nurses, and emergency medical personnel. The high number of professional employed were doctors (951), professional nurses with 915 recruited. More than 700 professional nurse students, who completed their training, were absorbed into vacant posts and 356 medical specialists were employed.
The total number of health professional currently employed by the department has now reached about 34 282 with a combined vacancy rate of 7 percent. The vacancy rate at the end of March 2013 stood at 21.9% for doctors, 9.6% for professional nurses and 17.5% for pharmacist.
The department addresses vacancies through recruitment and training. Gauteng has continued to be a province that produces the highest number of health professionals at its training institutions.
In the year under review, a total of 22 438 students in medicine, nursing and allied health professions were enrolled in Gauteng’s institutions of higher learning. These comprised 17 426 undergraduates and 5 012 post-graduates.
Enquiries:
Simon Zwane, department’s spokesperson
Cell: 082 551 9892
