Speaker, the DA welcomes the inclusion in Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's Budget last week of a proposal to allow private hospitals to help with the training of doctors, but ad hoc interventions such as these are not going to make a real difference to South Africa's medical worker shortage, unless they form part of a comprehensive strategy.
The DA believes that the moratorium on the employment of medical staff from other Southern African Development Community, SADC, countries should be lifted. Secondly, we believe that the quota which applies to the number of nurses that private hospitals can train, should be scrapped. Thirdly, medical personnel should be added to the Home Affairs scarce skills database. Fourthly, we need to launch an international recruitment programme. South Africa has many advantages as a destination for medical staff from all over the world. These advantages have not been exploited fully.
Finally, there should be a requirement for private sector doctors to perform a certain number of hours of service in public health facilities in order to maintain their registration. It is wrong that in the face of a shortage of 12 000 doctors and 46 000 nurses in the public sector, the national Health department does not have a human resource plan for health care. We need a comprehensive plan of this nature to help to address the fundamental breakdown in our public health care system. I thank you.