Numerous long-standing issues, including dysfunctional equipment, poor working conditions, and high patient numbers – and not just the National Health Insurance Bill – are prompting South African medical professionals to emigrate.
While doctors note the NHI as a concern, they have numerous other anxieties that pre-date the introduction of the Bill, reports Business Tech.
A 2019 study found that of 497 medical graduates, 89% (444) were still working in South Africa while 6.8% (34) had emigrated – meaning doctors were already leaving.
Reasons listed included incompetence and poor administration of the registration system.
As many are forced to wait for their community service, many take opportunities in other English-speaking countries, like the UK, Canada and Australia.
“Annually, the department cites budget constraints as a barrier to hiring qualified medical doctors, yet no substantial measures are evident to solve the funding dilemma,” said the South African Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu).
“This contributes to the web of factors prompting the continuous emigration of qualified doctors.”
Canadian immigration consultant Nicholas Avramis said his offices have received around 17 000 inquiries from South Africans looking to move.
Particularly appealing for South Africans moving to that country is that local doctors and nurses are exempt from having to get re-certified for practice when they make the move.
Other reasons to move include better pay and much better working conditions.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
SA doctor who emigrated to escape crime, brutally killed in Canada
Medical brain drain puts SA in dire position
The long, slow collapse of South Africa’s top hospitals
New Critical Skills List records no shortage of medical skills in South Africa
Helen Joseph doctors’ plea for action as hospital in ‘dire straits’