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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the release of the Draft Human Resources Strategy by the National Department of Health. It is long overdue and should go a long way to address the human resource shortfalls that negatively impact our public healthcare system.
The DA’s health HR policy proposal contains a three-pronged approach focusing on training, retaining and attracting new healthcare workers, including those from foreign countries. We are pleased to note that this has largely been followed by the health department in their draft strategy.
We must increase the number of public nursing colleges, remove barriers to private nursing colleges and make more space for private medical schools. We must also focus on retaining local healthcare professionals and, at the same time, actively recruit healthcare workers from other countries.
To this end, the DA believes that healthcare should be defined as a “scarce skill” on the Department of Home Affairs database. This would allow for the fast-tracking of foreign skilled healthcare professionals into our hospitals and clinics.
The draft health HR strategy is a huge leap towards ensuring access to quality healthcare for all. We look forward to engaging further with the Department of Health to fine-tune the proposals contained in the draft strategy.