SA Losing New Doctors

South Africa is losing an average of 17 percent of its newly qualified doctors to foreign countries every year, a Democratic Alliance (DA) parliamentary question revealed.

According to the reply, since 2005, only 4 702 of the 5 689 trainee doctors that applied to do internships applied for community service posts. This means that approximately 1 000 doctors did not register to work in South Africa that year.

“If qualified doctors are not doing their community service, then this probably means they are taking their degrees to other countries where community service is not required for registration”, DA spokesman Mike Waters said.

Waters said salaries were the main cause of concern. The DA proposed that the South African government negotiate salaries with the country’s doctors “in good faith”.

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