Hospital is crippled

An Eastern Cape hospital serving 262000 people has had to "scale down" its services as it waits for the Health Professions' Council of SA to register foreign doctors who want to work there.

Three weeks ago The Times reported that the 180-bed Madwaleni Hospital, a 90-minute drive from Mthatha, was facing closure.

Only two junior doctors and two clinical associates will still be working there next month.

Clinical associates are a new class of health professional regarded as being intermediate between a nurse and a doctor.

Eastern Cape superintendent-general of health Dr Siva Pillay undertook to prevent the hospital's closure.

"Before the end of January, Madwaleni should have five doctors, two clinical associates and community-service doctors," he said

But yesterday Saul Kornik , chief of Africa Health Placements, said that a medical manager from Zithulele, a nearby hospital, had been dispatched to help rescue the hospital by "restructuring and scaling-down services until they have enough staff".

Two doctors from the UK, aged 29 and 30, are scheduled to start working at Madwaleni but will arrive only on February 15.

Pillay seemed frustrated yesterday, saying he was "waiting for foreign doctors to be registered" and blamed the delay on the Health Professions' Council of SA'sfailure to keep bogus doctors from practising in South Africa.

Earlier this month the HPCSA's president, Sam Mokgokong, admitted it had failed the country by registering a Congolese doctor, Nyunyi Wambuyi Katumba, to work as a neurosurgeon.

Madwaleni Hospital is waiting for the council to register a doctor from the Netherlands so that she can become its chief medical officer.

Kornik said that registering the senior doctor and two others who wanted to work at the hospital "could take a few months".

Acting registrar and CEO of the Health Professions' Council Dr Kgosi Letlape said the body could not speed up urgent applications because registration processes had to be followed.

"We cannot compromise the safety of the public," he said, adding that it was the department of health's responsibility to fill vacant posts timeously.

Sick people who would have gone to Madwaleni now have no option but to travel further for medical attention.