Alfred Moselakgomo

Alfred Moselakgomo

One of the greatest challenges of the Mpumalanga Health Department faces is the shortage of skilled personnel.

Health MEC William Lubisi, pictured, said the situation was compounded by the exodus of professionals to other countries.

"Provinces such as ours, which are predominantly rural, have immense challenges and this impacts on the quality of services," said Lubisi.

He said that despite this challenge, the department had made commendable progress in filling most vacant posts, especially the professional posts.

"We managed to fill 1276 vacancies, 930 of which were professional posts. The process of appointing hospital chief executives is at an advanced stage and will be completed before the end of this financial year," he said.

Lubisi said that for the first time ever, his department had put in place a yearly planning calendar to help managers to streamline activities.

He said the department offered bursaries to students in the province to study various health disciplines. They have also increased the number of training sites for all categories of nursing.