The SA Medical Association warned on Monday that cuts in medical personnel would hurt vulnerable sectors of the population‚ boost litigation costs and aggravate working conditions. In a statement‚ the association said “austerity measures” set to be introduced in the North West‚ Eastern Cape‚ KwaZulu-Natal‚ Mpumalanga and Free State in December and January come as management appointments are on the increase. “The freezing of these critical service delivery posts this December and January comes exactly when most doctors and nurses are seeking them‚” SAMA said.Chairman of SAMA‚ Dr Mzukis Grootboom said this would result in lost opportunities and chronic staffing shortages for 2016 – with multiple negative knock-on effects.“Although mention is made of a process whereby critical posts can be unfrozen and advertised‚ the reality is that this is a long bureaucratic procedure which may require approval from the premier’s office. Over the last few years we have seen a mushrooming of middle and senior management positions in the various provincial departments of health at district and provincial level‚ with a net decrease in service level posts at institution level‚” he said.Grootboom said many provincial departments of health had received qualified audits by the auditor general‚ pointing to irregular and fruitless expenditure as the primary cause for not achieving a clean audit.He said litigation against departments of health have shown an alarming upward spiralling trend over the last few years.Grootboom said that when austerity measures were introduced the first posts to be targeted were the medical ones‚ because there were always medical vacancies in the public sector due to the mobility of doctors.“The freezing of medical officer‚ specialist and registrar posts is very short sighted and will only serve to further compromise the quality of care being rendered by the public healthcare service to the most vulnerable populations in South Africa‚” he said...