NZHELELE - Siloam hospital in Nzhelele caters for many communities in and around the Nzhelele area. However at present it is faces a bleak future, due to a shortage of medical doctors.

According to the community liaison officer of Siloam hospital, Mr Rogers Tshivhase, "Siloam is a big hospital which qualifies to have 17 doctors". At present the hospital only has six doctors and two of which are dentists.

Tshivhase told Mirror that it is very difficult to run the hospital with only six doctors. He stated that the Department of Health and Welfare is aware of the problem and is doing its best to recruit doctors for Siloam hospital. Many doctors do not want to come and work at the hospital because it is situated in a rural area. They instead prefer to work in urban areas or in their private practices.

This shortage of doctors results in many problems as patients come and wait for the whole day only to be attended to by one doctor. Mr Tshivhase appealed to members of the community to first go to their local clinics so that if possible they can get treatment there to avoid long queues at the hospital. Mr Tshivhase further said that in future patients who come to the hospital would first have to produce referral letters from their local clinics.

Tshivhase further said that all the people who have applied for disability grants would have their cases attended to in February 2003.