More than 90 Eastern Cape doctors find themselves unemployable due to the Eastern Cape health department’s failure to honour a contractual obligation.
The cash-strapped health department requires R358m to employ the affected doctors and other health professionals, who include nurses and allied medical professionals.
The doctors, funded by the health department through a bursary scheme, were required to work for the province’s health department after the completion of their community service.
However, despite an acute shortage of medical personnel in the province, the doctors found themselves having to picket outside health’s headquarters in Bhisho on Wednesday, demanding they be placed in jobs as promised.
They and allied health workers seeking placement studied at various institutions across the country and are desperate for work as their lives are at a standstill with no income.
There are 634 nurses, and 128 allied and medical health categories, which include 91 doctors, who are affected.
Health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda blamed the unemployment of the post-community service health professionals on “severe budget constraints” and medico-legal claims.
The affected health professionals said they were unable to pay their mortgage bonds, while others feared that banks would repossess their cars and their insurance policies would lapse if no further payments were made.
Some of the affected professionals who converged in Bhisho, where they handed over a list of demands, said they were unable to get employment until they had served in their provinces first, as required.
At the picket, SA Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) task team member Dr Mawande Dlamini blamed their unemployment on the incapacity and maladministration of the health department.
“As per the bursary obligations, the beneficiaries have to serve communities in their province for a number of years before they can even be considered for work anywhere else or open their own private practices,” he said.
“This is the case in other provinces as well and there is a database that flags all government bursary doctors who haven’t served in their areas.
“This means without getting employed by our provincial government we can’t get work, and not all doctors will open private practices.
“We are being set back in our private lives by all this because some of us have families and dependents. So without work, we can’t provide for them.”
Dlamini said they had no choice but to take legal action against the department if they did not get a response to the petition.
“We wrote to the health head of department Dr Rolene Wagner on December 14 and we still haven’t received any communication from her.
“Today we have been told she is out of the province and yet there is a burning issue that needs urgent attention.
“We were supposed to received our contracts so we can start working in January, but in SA you will find doctors in pickets, instead of in hospitals where they are most needed, because of maladministration.
“How can a government spend millions taking students through medical school and not provide them employment in a province with a huge shortage of medical professionals?” Dlamini asked.
Health department deputy director-general Dr Litha Matiwane received the petition, saying he understood the doctors’ plight and that they would get an official response from the department between two to seven days.
Dekeda said there was no hope for placement of the health workers in the remaining two years of the medium-term expenditure framework.
“These budgetary constraints arise out of the national fiscal budget cuts as well as the historical lump-sum settlements of medico-legal claims.
“The department requires about R358m for the appointment of these healthcare professionals post community service.
“Unfortunately this funding is not available in the next financial year, which starts in April 2022, or in the remaining two years of the medium-term expenditure framework.
“The department is in the process of lobbying both the provincial treasury and the national department of health for more funding.
LISTEN ON: | IONO.fm | Spotify | Apple | Google | SoundCloud | RSS | | Breaker | Pocket Casts | RadioPublic | Anchor |
“The department is committed to ensuring that we provide good quality services to our communities within our available budgets while also exercising financial discipline.
“Control measures have been put in place to ensure this, as we move towards financial stability.
“The department has invested in these bursary holders, and we want to find ways within the funding envelopes that ensure that they are able to work within our service platform in return for the investment the province made in them.”
Another doctor, who did not want to be named, said issues like this led to a brain drain because once the department decided to release them from the obligatory contract, many of them would find work in other provinces as there was no hope for them at home.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.