Health and Wellness
(a) What measures are being taken to (i) support medical students and (ii) ensure a sufficient pipeline of qualified healthcare workers, especially for rural areas, and (b) what financial support is available for disadvantaged students pursuing medical studies?
(a)(i) Measures taken to support medical students:
Within the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, the Chief Directorate: People Management oversees the People Development function, which incorporates the Western Cape College of Nursing (WCCN) and the Western Cape College of Emergency Care (WCCEC).
The WCCN is the provincial training platform for undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education. It operates across four campuses and embeds students in hospitals and clinics throughout the province, ensuring that their training is closely aligned with service delivery needs.
The WCCEC provides accredited training in emergency medical care, producing ambulance emergency assistants, paramedics, and other emergency personnel. This ensures a continuous supply of skilled staff for Emergency Medical Services, which are essential in both metropolitan and rural environments.
In partnership with higher education institutions, provincial hospitals serve as training platforms for interns, registrars, and specialists, supporting clinical exposure, specialist development, and research that directly benefits patient care.
Professional development is further reinforced through structured leadership, people management, and financial management training. In 2024/25, a total of 4 535 staff members benefitted from these programmes.
(a)(ii) Measures taken to ensure a sufficient pipeline of qualified healthcare workers, especially for rural areas:
Community service placements for doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals are allocated with a focus on rural hospitals, thereby addressing scarce skills in underserved districts.
Roving surgical teams and outreach programmes strengthen service delivery in rural areas, while in-reach rotations provide district medical officers with exposure to regional hospitals, enhancing their clinical capacity.
Transitional care services and incentive frameworks are being expanded to improve recruitment and retention of scarce-skills staff such as specialists and theatre-trained nurses in rural facilities.
Community health workers are being trained and deployed in farming communities and rural subdistricts, extending access to healthcare, home-based care, and health promotion at community level.
The Department is currently working on workforce planning measures to ensure equitable distribution and succession planning, with emphasis on rural retention.
(b) Financial support available for disadvantaged students pursuing medical studies:
Financial assistance is available to qualifying applicants who pursue medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and other scarce health professions. This support is tied to service commitments within the provincial health system, ensuring that graduates return to serve communities.
In 2024/25, financial support was prioritised for students from rural backgrounds to ensure that the future workforce reflects the needs of underserved areas.
Additional support for registrars and specialist nurses is supplemented through conditional grants and targeted partnership initiatives.
