Shorter service for doctors?

Shortening doctors’ internships from two years to one is being mooted to alleviate the strain in the training of doctors.

“What we know is that one of the health stakeholders did entertain the idea of internship training being reviewed.

“But it is too early for us to say anything about it,” health department spokesperson Popo Maja said.

Two-year internships help medical students to translate their theoretical knowledge into practice under the supervision of experienced doctors.

One-year community service helps provide health care to under-served areas.

SA Medical Association chair Dr Angelique Coetzee said there was a bottleneck‚ with too few internships to accommodate medical students graduating in SA and abroad‚ especially in Cuba.

“There is a big bottleneck‚ so if you can bring down the internships to one year and have one year comserve [community service]‚ then you alleviate the pressure.”

Trade union Solidarity welcomed the idea.

“These internships increasingly acquire the characteristics of obstacles for the profession rather than to create opportunities for the expansion of knowledge and the necessary preparation for the student’s career‚” Solidarity Research Institute’s Morne Malan said. –