The group of unemployed medical doctors that had been camping outside the offices of the KwaZulu-Natal government in Pietermaritzburg says the 20 posts made immediately available are not enough to get all of them hired.
The doctors say the provincial government should do more, as public hospitals desperately need their services.
The physicians said this in a statement sent to Sunday World after publicising their sit-in and plight on Wednesday morning.
Staged a sit-in
After the publication ran the story, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli cut his weekly cabinet meeting short and met with the doctors, who had spent a winter night camping outside the offices.
In tow was his MEC for Health, Nomagugu Simelane-Mngadi, who told the doctors that 20 posts will be advertised within the next seven days as part of an interim intervention to begin addressing the challenge of unemployment facing medical doctors and other healthcare professionals in the province.
She cited financial challenges as being behind the inability to absorb all the doctors.
“When we realised that our provincial budget would not be enough to absorb all the doctors finishing their community service this year, we escalated the matter to the premier. The premier and I then took the issue directly to the president, who in turn referred it to cabinet. As a result, National Treasury and the Department of Health are now working together to source and allocate funding across all provinces,” Simelane-Mngadi said.
Reacting to this move, the doctors said while they appreciate the move, it is not enough to save them all.
20 posts for over 137 doctors
“However, we must express our continued deep concern and disappointment that this intervention remains grossly insufficient in addressing the broader and urgent issue of the 137-plus doctors in KwaZulu-Natal who remain unemployed after completing their community service.
“The creation of 20 posts, while appreciated, represents only a fraction of the solution. It does not begin to address the widespread doctor shortages that persist across many hospitals and clinics throughout the province. Critical services remain understaffed. And many communities continue to suffer due to a lack of adequate medical personnel. This crisis is not isolated to specialist units. It spans the entire healthcare system in the province,” the doctors said in the joint statement.
They added that other provinces have responded more proactively to the shortage of doctors. They did this by opening significantly more posts and absorbing a larger number of unemployed doctors. Thus demonstrating the political will and urgency required to uphold the constitutional right to access quality healthcare.
Fundamental human right
“We reiterate: healthcare is a fundamental human right. And the availability of trained medical professionals is essential to delivering that right. The ongoing unemployment of qualified doctors, while patients wait in overcrowded clinics and under-resourced hospitals, is unacceptable.
“We remain open to engagement with the MEC for Health and the Premier of KwaZulu-Natal. This to address the issue of unemployed doctors and improving the state of healthcare for our communities,” they added.
