sahr2001 - Health Systems Trust

17 • Health and Related Indicators
As with the facility data, provincial averages hide all manner of regional and
sub-regional differences. In time, as district data becomes available, more
meaningful comparisons will be possible.
Also provided are the numbers of health workers (medical practitioners,
dentists, and pharmacists) performing community service in each province.
Additional community service posts have not been created, so the percentage
of current filled posts accounted for by such workers can be substantial,
especially where total numbers of posts for that professional group are low.
In 2001, community service medical officers made up between 7.5% (GT)
and 25.4% (NW) of the total available, and 16.2% nationally. For dentists,
the percentages were higher, ranging from 5.3% (GT) to 61.5% (KZN), with
25.9% nationally. For pharmacists, it was striking that some provinces
managed to attract far more than others - reflecting an ongoing inequitable
distribution of available posts. Community service pharmacists constituted
between 22.7% (NC) and 53.4% (FS) of all available pharmacists in the
State sector, and 31.2% of the national total.
Definitions:
Total number of health sector posts: Total number of health sector posts
including dental, medical, nursing, pharmacy, occupational therapy,
physiotherapy, radiography and psychology professions.
Percentage of health sector posts vacant: Percentage of all public health sector
posts that are vacant. Note that data is not available by occupational category,
so there is no way of knowing in which occupations the greatest shortages
exist.
Eastern Cape
Free State
Gauteng
KwaZulu-Natal
Mpumalanga
Northern Cape
Northern Province
North West
Western Cape
South Africa
Dental
Number of Dental Practitioners
2000 Public sector 1 47 25 225 61 45 11 30 41 112 597
2001 Public sector 2 54 31 226 52 50 14 46 50 111 634
Number of Dental Specialists
2000 Public sector 1 0 1 34 4 2 0 0 0 12 53
2001 Public sector 2 0 0 31 3 2 0 0 0 9 45
Number of Dental Therapists
2000 Public sector 1 3 1 28 31 8 2 22 15 2 112
2001 Public sector 2 3 2 29 27 9 1 31 16 2 120
Dental practitioners per 100 000 population
2000 Public sector 1 0.80 1.10 4.90 0.80 1.80 1.60 0.60 1.40 3.80 1.70
2001 Public sector 2 0.90 1.29 3.88 0.66 1.89 1.97 0.89 1.59 3.70 1.71
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