A draft document on the human resources health strategy says that these figures might be inflated as there is poor record-keeping in the sector. Econex senior economist Marine Erasmus says that the information could include posts that had been frozen or records that have not been updated.
Fin24 says that there are 10 860 vacant posts for doctors and 44 780 for specialist nurses.
In 2010 there were 150 500 people registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa while there were 231 036 nurses registered with the SA Nursing Council. The SA Pharmacy Council has 12 813 pharmacists and 9 071 pharmacy assistants registered on its database.
Read the Fin24 report.
Read the details of the Econex reports.
