“The province needs to produce more midwives to enable us to respond adequately to the challenge of maternal and infant mortality,” she said.

As a result the department will be looking at recruiting 2 660 new nursing students to start training in 2012.

The availability of health professionals is critical in building an effective health system and contributes towards the attainment of a long and healthy life for all. The department also trains pharmacy assistants and clinical associates to increase the availability of trained health professionals.

Clinical associate are a new category of health professionals who have been in training since 2009. The first cohort of this professionals are expected to graduate in 2012 and will be deployed to district hospitals and clinics where they will be assess patients, make diagnosis, prescribe appropriate treatment and undertake minor surgical procedures under the supervision of a qualified medical practitioner.

In the next five years, the department is also committed to increasing intakes by 25% per annum.

In an effort to further increase the number of health professionals, the department will advertise health science bursaries by the end of August 2011 to those with interest in the field.

The next nurse intake will be in January 2012.

Enquiries:
Simon Zwane
Cell: 082 551 9892