Doctor tries to humour state into paying salaries
LAUGHTER may be the best medicine, and for Suhayl Essa, a community service doctor, it’s the only thing getting him through.
Essa, who works at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, caused a stir on social media with a video lamenting how the Department of Health had failed to pay interns and community service doctors their January salaries.
Essa, who matriculated from Durban High School in 2010, is also a part-time comedian.
He said he tried to tackle the issue in a positive manner in the video, and was not afraid of criticising the department.
It has garnered more than 73 000 views.
In the video, recorded at the end of last month, Essa is seen lounging on a balcony and eating a carrot.
“What a wonderful day it is to receive an email saying you and your fellow colleagues as the group of interns and community service doctors of 2019 will not be paid for this month of January, January!
“How wonderful it is to study for six years and take out student loans and struggle through it all, to find out that you are not getting paid, it’s so wonderful,” he exclaimed.
He then states that he has become vegan out of necessity, and that he was “down to his last carrot”.
The recording is then interrupted by a “call” from his landlord, in which Essa says he couldn’t pay the rent in time because he did not get paid his overtime money.
“But we said I could live on the balcony. You can’t kick me off the balcony, next month I promise I’ll pay, I’ll stay on the right hand side of the balcony,” he tells the landlord.
He says this is not the first time he had not been paid.
“It’s going to be a tough month, probably going to be a tough year, but it’s so wonderful to know the incompetent and corrupt politicians that line the Department of Health had a good time in December with their Christmas bonuses.
“I didn’t receive mine because we didn’t get any but we worked throughout Christmas, and New Year,” he says.
Essa said doctors were paid their overtime salaries and were not allowed to claim for more than 120 overtime hours, which he described as “slavery”.
He hadn’t expected the video to do so well, and Essa had people offer him food parcels for the month.
“Fortunately, my work as a comedian adds to my income, but we all have bills to pay. The department has come up with all sorts of excuses, such as a glitch on the payroll system as to why we haven’t been paid and we have no certainty when it will happen,” he said.
Essa said the department had informed interns and community service doctors that if they could not afford transport costs to get to work, they could apply for special leave.
“But none of us would want to put our workload and burden on another already overworked doctor, while we take special leave. How can we let another doctor handle double the amount of patients?
“The department uses this method, knowing we would have a guilty conscience for deserting our patients and adding to the workload of another doctor.”
Essa said doctors are working excessive hours, contravening many labour laws.
“Our contracts state that we aren’t allowed to claim payment for more than 120 hours, but we are working 180 hours or more a month, sometimes 30 or 36 hours at a time.
“We care for our patients, so we do this, because we cannot desert them. They do not deserve to suffer because the department has problems,” he said.
Essa hoped someone from the department would notice the video and ensure payments.