Ministers meeting over doctors’ strike

PRETORIA - An urgent meeting between several ministers and deputy ministers is underway in Pretoria on Tuesday to find a solution to the ongoing doctors’ strike.

Health department spokesman Fidel Hadebe told journalists awaiting a press conference that Deputy Health Minister Molefe Sefularo, Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Molefi and representatives of the treasury were discussing ways to resolve the matter.

“They are discussing a proposed model... to suspend the strike action,” Hadebe said.

Doctors in several hospitals were currently striking for better wages and working conditions.

Hadebe said patients from the George Mukhari, Tembisa and Jubilee hospitals were being transferred to other hospitals.

“If you take a decision to relocate patients it means that services have been affected. We are rerouting them to less affected hospitals,” said Hadebe. Emergency and intensive care services from the affected hospitals were also being transferred to other hospitals.

Hadebe couldn’t say how many doctors were on strike nationally, but confirmed there were problems especially in Gauteng, Free State and North West, where it had been reported that up to 50 doctors had been dismissed because of the unprotected strike action.

“If doctors refuse to go back, the provinces, who are the employers, have to make a decision on what action to take,” said Hadebe.

- Sapa