A shortfall in community service posts for doctors and several other disciplines will be adjusted by converting an over-supply in other fields, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has assured Parliament.
While compulsory community service was originally intended to boost the number of healthcare professionals in under-serviced areas, the health system has struggled to absorb hundreds of graduates, who have been in limbo because they cannot work in their chosen profession or train to become specialists until they fulfil this obligation.
In a written reply to questions by DA MP Karl le Roux, the Minister said there were enough funded posts for nine out of every 10 medical students who would complete their training this year, reports BusinessLIVE.
He said provinces were also short of funded community service posts for pharmacists, environmental health practitioners, physiotherapists and diagnostic radiographers.
At the end of this year, around 2 330 medical interns are expected to complete their second and final year of internship, their last leg of training to qualify as a doctor. But there were only 2 128 funded community service posts for doctors next year, resulting in a shortfall of 202, the Minister said.
The issue was the same in four other disciplines: provinces were short of community service posts for 117 environmental health practitioners, 70 pharmacists, 29 diagnostic radiographers and 18 physiotherapists.
The problem was acute in environmental health, with funded community service posts for just 60% of the 295 eligible people, he said.
“To mitigate the shortfall, the department has already engaged provincial Health Departments to convert certain posts to medical community service posts.”
Provinces would finalise their work to convert posts for community service positions by mid-October.
Luvuyo Baleni, the department’s chief director for human resources, said post conversion was restricted to community service positions.
Provinces had an oversupply of some community service posts for 2025 due to a reduction in the number of graduates in some disciplines, including nursing, psychology and medicine, he said.
The department had received 1 059 community service applications for nursing, compared with the 1 889 posts available, while there were 2 163 applicants for 2 493 medical internships. In psychology there were 242 posts but just 151 applicants, and in audiology there were 132 posts with just 109 applicants.
The Eastern Cape Department of Health said only existing community service posts would be converted to ensure this year’s graduates could fulfil their statutory obligations. A total of 15 medical intern posts would be converted to 10 community service posts and the process would not affect service delivery, a spokesperson said.
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