Doctors in Gauteng march for preferential employment on Monday.
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Hundreds of medical professionals, including at least 600 unemployed doctors supported by colleagues, took to the streets of Pretoria on Monday to demand that they be offered jobs.
The march began at 7.30am from Madiba Street and Kgosi Mampulu Street in Tshwane. They waved placards and sang and chanted all the way to the Union Building.
Doctors march for jobs at union building
The protests come as the country’s doctor-patient ratio is at critical levels and hospitals across the country are in dire need of more doctors. Hospitals also face high patient volumes in the public sector, with one doctor per 3,000 patients, compared to the World Health Organization’s minimum requirement of one doctor per 1,000 patients. Masu.
In another march two weeks ago, about 200 unemployed doctors from Durban marched to the Health Department in Pietermaritzburg to demand a solution to KwaZulu-Natal’s healthcare worker unemployment problem.
Doctors in Gauteng march for preferential employment on Monday.
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Dr David Malbini, spokesperson for the South African Medical Association Labor Union, said: “There are still plus or minus 600 doctors left unemployed and we hope they will deliver their memorandum of demands at the union building to the Office of the President.” “We are dispatched to assist with this,” he said. Submit a letter asking the government to prioritize the employment of South African doctors in the current doctor employment crisis.
Malbini also told City Press that the trade unions and workers handed over the memorandum at the union building because they wanted to bring the attention of the National Treasury, the Presidency and the Minister of Health into one place for a faster response to the unemployment crisis. He said he had decided.
Marubini said:
Doctors marching for jobs is an insult to South Africans. But for us, it’s painful and disappointing to be told we don’t have a job after years of going to school and struggling through community service and internships. This is an error and must be fixed.
Malbini said the future of doctors is uncertain as posts and budgets in the medical sector are being cut. “Now overtime pay has been cut. So tell me, where? [does] Is the future of doctors a lie? However, they are still exposed to crime and danger on the job, receive delayed paychecks, and work with limited resources. ”
He further explained:
We demand immediate hiring priority for all currently unfilled doctors. And we want the president to give a clear deadline and commit to when, where and how the positions will be opened. We are only going to respond to them for a week because this is not a new issue and they already know about the serious problem of doctor unemployment.
Mr. Malvini said the march would have an impact on the nation because doctors are fighting to support other doctors and change the stigma of doctors after years of studying to become beggars in the health care system when they can work anywhere in the country. He said he would give it.
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“Challenges in the health sector should not impact patients, but they do. Our hands in the health sector are valuable, and we are here to use our positions as physicians to help our state. You can work anywhere within.”
Mr Malvini said it was important for the government to urgently find a solution to prevent future graduates from experiencing the humiliation of fighting for job prospects within the same system that has trained and certified them. He said that.
Marubini said:
The government can no longer even hide the truth. I once heard that the government is hiding behind doctors who don’t want to work in rural areas. Well, that’s a lie. We are all here in this march, but the government has not released local posts. There are no posts in urban or rural areas. Should we work for Mr Price or Checkers and say we are doctors rejected by the system?
Mpho Radebe, an unemployed doctor who spoke to City Press during the march, said participating in the protests was his last hope of getting a job.
Mr Radebe said:
I did community service last year and completed it in November. I had hoped that I would be placed in a facility and hired full-time by January, but so far there have been no positions available. Given the challenges facing medical professionals and doctors, I’m starting to fear for my future in medicine.
The young doctor said the thought of spending another year at home was depressing and anxiety-inducing. “I’m desperate for a job because other industries think I’m overqualified. They turn me away, saying they can’t afford it. [to pay] myself. But sadly, the same system that trained me has no place for me to work,” Radebe said.
Malvini said the memorandum was received by health department officials. They gave the president seven days to respond.
The Ministry of Health said it does not have the financial capacity to admit experts following budget cuts over the past three years.
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