Surgical services in the Eastern Cape is heading for a collapse if the shortage of general surgeons continued, Dispatch Online quoted on Tuesday.
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It reported Dr Sats Pillay, chairman of the Association of Surgeons in SA (ASSA) as saying: "I have nobody to train as surgeons."
Of the 30 junior doctors in Frere Hospital, only 10 wanted to specialize in general surgery. At the Mthatha’s Nelson Mandela Hospital it was worse, with only six, of 30 junior doctors, desiring to become general surgeons.
If this trend continues there might be no general surgeons in South Africa in the future.