The Northern Cape Health spokesperson, Lebogang Majaha, said that the medical internship programme is overseen by the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA). According to Majaha, the HPCSA has accredited about 80 medical interns for supervised training at the Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Tertiary Hospital in the province.

"We can only increase this number if this is approved by the HPCSA through their training board. Currently we have 76 community service officers allocated by Health in our province. We indicated to the national department that through this allocation we can accommodate an additional 30 to 40 community service doctors," said Majaha.

OFM News previously reported that the Northern Cape DA submitted their proposal of utilising unemployed doctors in fighting the pandemic to the Health MEC, Maruping Lekwene. Meanwhile, Majaha reiterated that they are in discussions with the national department regarding an additional number of community service doctors that can be placed within the province.

OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi