RUDASA NEWSLETTER
1 October 2002

AIDS booklet
Let me start by telling you about the enclosed booklet. RuDASA was given free copies by the British publishers. They would appreciate some feedback whether the booklet is suitable for AIDS education in schools in our setting. Could you kindly fill in the feedback form, and either post or e-mail it. We have been requested to give feedback by end of October, please do it as soon as possible!

2002 Conference
The 6th annual conference in Sabie was a great success! Thanks to those who attended and presented papers or workshops. Julia Blitz, who coordinated the scientific programme, was very pleased that so many abstracts were received. Our main speakers were prof Mariba, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at UP, and David McCoy, Director of Research from HST. Prof Mariba spoke about strategies for recruitment and retention, and David McCoy spoke about the district health system, clarifying issues for many of us.

The Pierre Jaques Rural Doctor of the year award was presented to dr Thys von Mollendorff, recognising his years of service and commitment to patients, despite political interference. It was the first time the award was given, and it is planned to become an annual event, co-sponsored by RuDASA, SAMA and the Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care. Perhaps one of you will be a recipient next year? We will call for nominations in every province, before next year's conference.

2003 Conference
The 2003 conference will be held in Worcester in the Western Cape on 8-9 Aug 2003, and will link with the GP conference in Stellenbosch. Please diarise it now!

Conference down yonder
South Africa was well represented at the WONCA World Conference on Rural Health in May 2002. For those who attended, it was great to see and hear what is happening in other rural areas of the world. The problems are often very similar, although the contexts differ. The Melbourne Manifesto was accepted at the conference, and is a code of conduct for international recruitment of health professionals.

AGM decisions
A new vice chairman was elected, Hoffie Conradie. The chair and secretary/treasurer will continue for the second year of their two year term. New representatives for some provinces (and a neighbouring country) were also elected - see the list on the reverse side of this page. We are still looking for a rep for the Northern Cape!

It was decided that the annual membership fee for 2003 will be R100 for qualified doctors, and R50 for students and community service doctors.

The future
RuDASA has communicated with the HPCSA regarding the registration of foreign qualified doctors, and our concern about the lack of supervision of community service doctors at some facilities. We had a meeting with the National Department of Health in May, and hope to have a follow up meeting in November. The aim is to discuss practical solutions to the staffing crisis in rural hospitals.

Rudasa Committee Members 2002

Name	Portfolio	Cell	Tel	E-mail
Elma de Vries	Chairperson	082 8286259	021 3925161	elmadv@mweb.co.za
Hoffie Conradie	Vice Chairman	083 7020727	045 9431114	shawcon@yebo.co.za
John Tumbo	Secretary/Treasurer	082 9747087	012 3651652	tumbo@lantic.net
Ntodeni Ndwamato	Limpopo	082 8782855	015 9641301	ndwamato@samedical.co.za
Ian Couper	North West/ Former chairman	082 8010188	012 2551796	couper@lantic.net
Dave Cameron	Gauteng		012 3612268	dcameron@med.up.ac.za
Joe Delport	Orange FS	082 5507600	056 212652111	delporjl@doh.ofs.gov.za
Liz Thomson	KZN	072 4548436	033 3458979	thomson@futurenet.co.za
Andrew Cumberlege	Mpumalanga		013 7413031	andrewc@social.mpu.gov.za
Louis Jenkins	Western Cape	083 7951065	044 8024528	ljenkins@pawc.wcape.gov.za
Rudi Thetard	Eastern Cape	083 4173776	043 7481984	thetard@eci.co.za
vacant	Northern Cape
Jonathan Pons	Swaziland		092 683434124	mabuda@realnet.co.sz
Steve Reid	Former chairman	083 4471907	031 2601585	sreid@iafrica.com
Edward Bowen Jones	Former chairman	083 2507190		ebjones@mweb.co.za
Marietjie de Villiers	Academy (Ex officio)	082 9251191	021 9389035	mrdv@sun.ac.za
Mark Ferreira	RHI (Ex officio)		011-5073069	mark.ferreira@knowledgeobjects.biz
Neethia Naidoo	WONCA Rural Working group		033 5011110	docnn@iafrica.com
Julia Blitz	FAMEC (Ex Officio)	082 4527849	012 3542141	jblitz@med.up.ac.za