The Democratic Alliance welcomes the appointment of a doctor at the
Fraserburg Hospital. At last a doctor is now available to deliver
medical services to the community in Fraserburg and Sutherland, which
has been served mostly by a nurse for the past few years.

The appointment of doctors has been very intermittent. Before the new
appointment was made, a doctor would visit the Fraserburg Hospital
only once a week.

In my oversight visits to the facility, I have seen how the nurse must
handle sixty to seventy patients a day. This amount excludes the
emergency and trauma cases. During one visit, the staff had actually
locked the nurse away in a room so that she could get some rest before
seeing more patients. It is inhumane to expect that one person must
shoulder the burden of medical services for an entire community.

The appointment of a medical doctor should improve the delivery of
services to the community. It is cause for concern that the department
did not actively pursue the filling of this vacancy. Instead, it was
left for the doctor to contact the regional office in Springbok. The
relevant manager at first told her that she would not be appointed,
despite the fact that a doctor was needed, as she was ‘overqualified’.
Our local councillor Marie van Wyk and myself then referred the matter
to the head of the department of Health.

The DA calls on the department of Health to prioritise the appointment
of qualified staff to medical facilities in the province. As of 31
March 2014, the vacancy rate for permanent medical specialists in the
province stands at 40%, with permanent medical practitioners at 18%
and permanent pharmacists at 30%. When vacancy rates are this high and
medical facilities are left unstaffed, communities cannot access
health care of an acceptable standard. We are concerned that qualified
professionals are being turned away when the vacancy rates are this
high.

We will be pursuing the matter of appointments and the retention
strategy through our continued interactions with the department.

 

Issued by DA