The amount of money allocated for doctors and nurses’ salaries will increase by a paltry 1.1% on average for each of the next three years, limiting the number of practitioners that can be hired by provincial hospitals and clinics.

The National Treasury says in the Budget Review that it plans to only marginally hike the budget for medical staff compensation, which already uses up 62.5% of provincial health budgets. This will limit "the ability of provincial health departments to employ frontline staff", it says...