The Court Order Doctors are (rightly) Ignoring
The Democratic Alliance has been warning of the danger posed to the public by various issues of poor management, overly aggressive transformation at the expense of skills and experience, poorly remunerated doctors and nurses and corruption in procurement in the South African health services. Doctors who have to work in these conditions have recently decided that enough is enough and that for them to do their work and comply with their hippocratic oath, they must force the ANC-led Government to listen.
Here is a copy of the Court Order which requires striking doctors in KZN to return to work. Doctors seem willing to lose their jobs rather than return to work in conditions which are often so apalling that they cannot save lives due to filth and lack of equipment and medicines.
Personally, I know a good number of these Doctors and while some have chosen to stay on and look after patients despite the strike, others have chosen to protest actively. Both groups are right. Both I am proud of.
I would like to assemble personal testimonials of Doctors and other people in the Health services which can shed light on some of the conditions (other than poor pay) within which Doctors must work in South Africa.
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June 29th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
I, myself, am in the health industry. While I am in the emergency medical sector, I, like 90% of my friends, have opted to work abroad. This is mainly attributed to the inability to sustain a decent lifestyle on the salaries paid by both private and government sector health departments.
Doctors study for years and should be entitled to a decent wage, relevant to their time, effort and qualifications. Why is it that staff in ‘revenue generating’ departments can be remunerated suitably with a three year degree, bjut a doctor, who forms part of ‘grudge purchase service’, is paid a fraction of that?
I say they must continue to strike, the taxis do it so the ‘educated sector’ must also stand up for their rights. What are they going to do, fire everybody? They can’t staff the system as it is, let alone without the bulk of the health professionals they propose to dismiss.