March to KZN premier's office to demand jobs for hundreds of doctors

Hundreds of doctors across KwaZulu-Natal are expected to march to the premier's office in Pietermaritzburg on Thursday morning to voice their frustrations about the unemployment of hundreds of doctors in the province.

The march is expected to highlight the poor working conditions for those doctors who do have jobs.

South African Medical Association Trade Union (Samatu) provincial chairperson Dr Sibahle Khumalo said the union had noted that more than 400 doctors had been without work after having successfully completed their community service.

She said though the union had engaged the national department of health, the efforts had yielded no positive results.

“We have doctors who come from impoverished backgrounds and who wish to go back to their communities. They saw the need to do so during their stints of training but they are unable to do so because there are no opportunities,” said Khumalo.

She said there were no budget allocations to place them.  

“Our biggest challenge here is that we have a mass shortage of doctors. The government can't say there is no obligation to hire doctors when the health facilities are operating with such minimal staff,” said Khumalo.

She said the shortage of doctors meant those employed have to carry the burden of unfilled posts of those doctors who emigrated and those who moved to other provinces. 

Khumalo said in some hospitals, a department would have five doctors working where ideally there should be 10.  

Khumalo said there was also an increase of intake of medical students across different universities.

“We are told of an increase from 150 to 250 in different universities. If you look at it there would be an extra 100 doctors who would have successfully qualified. It's disconnected and there is no contingency to employ those doctors,” said Khumalo.

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