Nabeelah Shaikh
ADURBAN surgeon and an anaesthesiologist who were kicked out of the KZN Department of Health after their four years of training are disheartened that they have been left in limbo.
They hoped to have offered a much-needed service to public health, but instead had their contracts terminated despite a critical need for specialists in local hospitals.
Surgeon, Dr Veshal Maharaj, has opted to open his own practice in Reservoir Hills, while anaesthetist, Saiyuran Naidoo, still hopes positions would be made available in the province.
Both doctors are aware of the reality on the ground as they had trained at Addington and Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central hospitals. Like them, there are at least 42 other specialists who completed the registrar programme in December who are waiting for specialist posts to be advertised.
On Friday, more than 1 000 doctors joined SA Medical Association (Sama) KZN in a protest march that highlighted concerns such as the small number of specialists being Dr Saiyuran Naidoo. hired. The organisation also said a shortage of anaesthesiologists was resulting in a backlog of critical operations.
Maharaj, who was one of the doctors awarded a service excellence award at Addington during his four-year training, was in disbelief that the department could not create positions for general surgeons.
All specialists who entered the system with him were sent e-mails to say their contracts would be terminated on December 25.
These were later extended for three months.
In March, the three-month contracts were terminated, leaving some jobless. Others settled for other posts within the department, such as medical officer – which was not specific to their training.
They were told they would be added back to the system and should return to their base hospitals. To date, KZN Health’s human resources department has given them the run around, they said.
“I know they are not indebted to give us jobs, but why kick us out when there is a desperate need for us on the ground? I am grateful to the public health system for training me in those four years as a general surgeon and I really could have given them many more years of service if they had made posts available. Those on the ground understand the challenges we face in our hospitals and to note that they can get rid of newly-qualified surgeons is disturbing,” said Maharaj.
He said even if he wanted to re-enter public health, he would think twice because