South Africa is losing around 17 percent of its newly qualified doctors each year, the DA said on Sunday.

"A reply to a Democratic Alliance parliamentary question shows that South Africa is losing on average 17 percent of its newly qualified doctors every year, probably to other countries, before they even register as doctors in South Africa," said Mike Waters, DA shadow minister of health.

"The reply shows that since 2005 (excluding 2008, in which figures are distorted by the introduction of an extra year of internship), a total of 5689 trainee doctors applied to do internships, but only 4702 newly qualified doctors applied for community service posts.

"Given that graduation figures have been stable over the past few years, this means that around 1000 doctors since 2005 did not register to work in South Africa," Waters said in a statement.

If qualified doctors were not completing their community service, this probably meant they were taking their degrees to other countries where community service is not required for registration, he said.

Waters suggested three measures to put in place to keep doctors in the country.

Government should negotiate with doctors in good faith about their salaries.

"It is unacceptable that the government ignored this for two years, responded only when doctors threatened to strike, and then delivered only more empty promises."

Doctors should be included in the "scarce skills" database at home affairs, so that more foreign-qualified doctors could work in the country.

Thirdly, government should lift the ban on the recruitment of health workers from the South African Development Community region, "so that doctors fleeing poor circumstances at home can use their skills productively here".

Sapa

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