sector skills plan for the health sector in south africa

actively recruiting to fill all these posts. Thus the information on vacant posts on PERSAL must be used
with caution as it does not reflect the true state of vacant posts in the public sector. .
Table 4-3 Vacancy rates in the National and provincial health departments in selected occupation: 31
March 2010
Occupation Vacant Filled Total Vacancy Rate (%)
Dental practitioners 921 770 1 691 54
Dental specialists 155 121 276 56
Medical practitioners 10 860 11 302 22 162 49
Medical specialists 3 491 4 436 7 927 44
Professional nurses 44 780 51 964 96 744 46
Staff and pupil nurses 16 202 24 315 40 517 40
Student nurses 2 458 10 906 13 364 18
Pharmacists 3 745 2 958 6 703 56
Physiotherapists 1 074 1 009 2 083 52
Occupational therapists 1 260 838 2 098 60
Radiographists 1 621 2 300 3 921 41
Psychologists 699 498 1 197 58
Source: PERSAL.
Skills shortages or scarce skills are also monitored by the SETAs in the WSPs submitted to them on an
annual basis. For the purposes of this SSP the WSPs submitted to the HWSETA and those submitted by
the health departments to the PSETA were combined to provide an overview of the shortages
experienced in the health sector. However, the two SETAs didn’t formulate their questions identically,
and, therefore, the figures are not directly comparable. Table 4-4 combines the information for the
private sector and the Public Service. In this table only occupations in which more than 75 vacancies
existed are reported. The occupations are grouped together in professional fields such as nursing and
pharmacy. A more detailed list of scarce skills according to the OFO is attached in Appendix A.
In 2010, 33% of the organisations that submitted WSPs to the HWSETA reported difficulties in filling
certain vacancies, while the national DoH as well as most of the provincial departments 157 reported skill
shortages. In the private health sector, a total of 4 184 vacancies (3% of total employment) were
difficult to fill and in the public health sector 26 441 people (13% of total employment) were required to
meet scarce skills needs. A third of the vacancies that were difficult to fill in private health organisations
were vacancies for professional positions, while 47% of the scarce skills reported in the Public Service
were for professionals such as medical specialists and practitioners, registered nurses and pharmacists
(Table 4-4). The public health sector indicated severe shortages of financial managers and managers in
information technology, while a need for more health-related professionals such as dieticians and
physiotherapists also existed.
157 Scarce skills information could not be obtained from the Mpumalanga department of health
46