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ECape health dept to sponsor medical training for rural school-leavers
SAPA
2001-02-09

A fund to sponsor medical training of eligible school-leavers in the rural Eastern Cape has been set up by the provincial health department, health MEC Dr Bevan Goqwana said on Wednesday.

A fund to sponsor medical training of eligible school-leavers in the rural Eastern Cape has been set up by the provincial health department, health MEC Dr Bevan Goqwana said on Wednesday. Addressing medical interns and community service doctors in Cape Town, Goqwana said: This fund will be used to train students from rural communities, so that they can come back and serve those communities. 

Provincial statistics showed there was only one doctor per 10 000 people in most rural areas in the province. The World Health Organisation recommends a ratio not lower than one doctor per 1 000 people. Luring more doctors to these under-serviced areas was one of the department's top priorities. 

Goqwana stressed that this strategy would be subject to the admission policies of South Africa's tertiary medical schools. The department was also considering offering special financial incentives for doctors who accepted a rural posting. This was in addition to an outsourcing programme that employed doctors in private practice on limited contracts to work in under-serviced areas. This week Goqwana also announced that a second group of 10 students mainly from underprivileged rural areas had been sent to study medicine in Cuba. They will join 19 Eastern Cape students were already undergoing medical training there. On completion of their studies they, too, will be deployed in these hospitals. However, sending students to Cuba is not an end itself, but is a short-term means to addressing imbalances in these areas, said Goqwana.
(Source: SAPA, 08/02/01)

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