Hospital needs more than doctors

Fixing the problems at Madwaleni Hospital in rural Eastern Cape will take more than just more doctors, say former staff.

Last week, The Times reported that only one doctor and two clinical associates were working at the 180-bed hospital in the Mbashe district.

Eastern Cape health department superintendent-general Siva Pillay said severe budget cuts by the province had led to posts being frozen and the department being unable to appoint staff.

Two foreign doctors were expected to start work at the hospital on Thursday and three community service doctors "might arrive" in January, said Pillay.

But Lynne Wilkinson, who worked at the hospital for six years, said that, unless structural problems were solved, the same problem of insufficient staff would be experienced "all over again the following year".

By hiring only medical staff "we are just putting a plaster over the problem", she said.

The hospital needed both a long-term clinical manager and a hospital manager to stabilise it.

Staff who worked there previously faced many administrative and salary problems.

Dr Tom Boyles, who worked at the hospital for three years until 2010, said "it had taken an average of six months to place a foreign doctor in a post and another six months for him to be paid correctly, and I hear things have got worse".

He said a manager was needed to deal with human resources and administration problems.

Dr Richard Cooke, of the Rural Health Advocacy Project, said district staff should provide academic and medical support, and training, for new community service doctors.

Eastern Cape health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said the department met hospital human resource managers from across the province yesterday.

"We have acknowledged weaknesses in human resources . we are announcing a deputy director-general in charge of human resources for the whole province."