Junior doctors beg for jobs

JUNIOR doctors have made an impassioned plea to the government to hire them and help them complete their internships and community service.

The Cape Argus’s sister newspaper, The Star, understands that around 150 junior doctors are jobless. The 133 who were given placements are experiencing problems, with some being turned back by the hospitals they were placed in. In some instances, some of the junior doctors were working without a contract.

Dr Sandile Mlungwane said the South African Medical Association (Sama) and an independent law firm were trying to help the students compel the government to hire them. The students were promised placement by July 1 but that did not materialise.

Sama said on Sunday it has given the Department of Health, the acting minister of health, and the Health Professions Council of South Africa until Friday to ensure the placement of medical interns, failing which legal action would be taken against them.

“(It is) a situation that has been going on for five months. We started having engagements from the beginning of April. The internship and community service is compulsory so that we can practise independently,” Mlungwane said.

He said there were junior doctors who were eligible to start their internships at the beginning of the year. But they have also not been placed. The doctors were told that the entry points into the internship programme were in January and June.

“They told us they can’t do anything until the date of entry has passed, so they said we should wait for July 1. We updated our information on the government's system and they have the number of interns that have completed medical school.”

Mlungwane said the interns were running out of hope. He said the junior doctors were ready to serve the hospitals, especially in light of the Covid 19 pandemic.

“We have colleagues that are overworked and we know that doctors are working overtime but the government is not hiring doctors that are sitting at home.”

He said junior doctors were angry that the government had hired Cuban doctors to work in South Africa, at huge expense, but had failed to hire the local doctors sitting at home.

“We are told that the third wave has intensified and they need all the help they can get. They don’t seem to care because if they cared, they would have employed all these doctors but instead they are spending a lot of money on the Cuban doctors,” Mlungwane said.

DA health spokesperson in Gauteng Jack Bloom said he was not surprised about the lack of placements for junior doctors. It had been a problem every year but this year was different because the country was in a pandemic. “They can’t seem to get in right, but it’s a competency of the National Health Department,” Bloom said.

Health spokesperson Popo Maja was not available to comment.