The health department has appointed over 500 foreign medical doctors to public health sector posts over the past 16 months, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday.

In a written reply to a question in the National Assembly, she said altogether 507 doctors -- predominantly from developing countries -- were on record as having been placed in specific institutions around SA since November 2006.

A further 515 had been endorsed towards sitting for the medical board exams with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), and 216 were rejected through the departments of health and home affairs screening process in compliance with the Immigration Act.

Of the 507 appointed, 364 were from developing countries, including 317 from Africa -- mainly the Democratic Republic of Congo (137), Nigeria (133) and Zimbabwe (12).

Of the 114 doctors from developed countries, 61 were from the United Kingdom, 15 from the Netherlands, 11 from Germany, seven from Sweden, and five each from Australia and Belgium.

Commenting on Tshabalala-Msimang's reply, DA spokesman Mike Waters called for a policy review. On the one hand Tshabalala-Msimang claimed to enforce a policy of not allowing health professionals from other developing countries to work in South Africa, and on the other hand this policy was blatantly ignored in practice.

The policy was implemented as a way to prevent the exacerbation of the brain drain problem in other poorer countries. "But 137 doctors working in South Africa are from the DRC, which has one of the lowest ratios of doctors to patients in the world."

The policy of not encouraging doctors from developing countries to work in South Africa did not make practical sense and needed to be reviewed, he said.