Hospital complex needs 340 staff

THE Port Elizabeth Hospital Complex needs more than 340 medical staff, Eastern Cape Health MEC Sicelo Gqobana has revealed.

In a written response in the Bhisho legislature, Gqobana said hospitals in the complex – Livingstone, Provincial and Dora Nginza – were still bearing the brunt of a crippling doctor and specialist shortage.

He said Livingstone needed 76 doctors, six specialists and 88 nurses; Dora Nginza needed 35 doctors, four specialists and 81 nurses; and Provincial needed four doctors, two specialists and 46 nurses.

Last year, Gqobana was presented with a plan showing that R38- million was immediately available for the filling of posts at the complex.

The first priority was to fill the 47 posts left vacant by doctors at the end of 2012. Since then the department had filled some specialist positions, including the appointment of the province's first paediatric oncologist, an infectious disease specialist, a cardiologist and a gastroenterologist. -