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Too few black doctors
by Brian Stuart
2001-10-04

South Africa is training sufficient doctors for its needs, but they do not include enough blacks or doctors prepared to serve in rural areas, Parliament's Health Portfolio Committee has been told. The country's medical schools should be producing about 1250 doctors a year, said Professor Thanyani Mariba, acting president of the Health Professions Council, who is dean of the Medical School at the University of Pretoria. But there remained a gap between blacks and whites studying for the medical professions. Last month the Health Ministry called together deans of the medical schools claiming the number of black students was not increasing enough. Prof Mariba said that in the past black students with qualifications in mathematics and science could train to become doctors or nurses. Now other fields were open to them, such as engineering or IT professions. Therefore universities had to fight over the pool of black students who qualified with science and mathematics to enter university - about 5 000 last year. (Source: The Citizen, 3 October 2001)

South Africa is training sufficient doctors for its needs, but they do not include enough blacks or doctors prepared to serve in rural areas, Parliament's Health Portfolio Committee has been told.

The country's medical schools should be producing about 1250 doctors a year, said Professor Thanyani Mariba, acting president of the Health Professions Council, who is dean of the Medical School at the University of Pretoria.

The numbers we are producing are sufficient for this country, so we do not have a shortage of doctors in South Africa. What we have is a maldistribution, where the doctors are concentrated mainly around Gauteng, the Western Cape and other urban areas.

But there remained a gap between blacks and whites studying for the medical professions. Last month the Health Ministry called together deans of the medical schools claiming the number of black students was not increasing enough.

This we are aware of. This policy has been in place six or seven years, and the Ministry was very unhappy that the University of Stellenbosch had only two black students, said Prof Mariba.

Prof Mariba said that in the past black students with qualifications in mathematics and science could train to become doctors or nurses. Now other fields were open to them, such as engineering or IT professions.

Therefore universities had to fight over the pool of black students who qualified with science and mathematics to enter university - about 5 000 last year.

Source: The Citizen, 3 October 2001

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