Health dept leaves 2,600 young doctors in limbo… again

The health department has been accused of making silly excuses for its delay in releasing the list of compulsory community service placements, which has left about 2,600 young doctors in limbo.

With a little over a month before the start of their community service, the graduate doctors are still in the dark about where in the country they will be placed.

The doctors, as well as the SA Medical Association (Sama), have complained that this delay will leave them with little or no time to prepare and find accommodation, saying the issue has been a recurring problem for the past three years.

Several young doctors complained about the situation in social media posts on groups for intern and community service doctors this past week. None were willing to be named, due to fears of victimisation from the department.

“In less than two months I am meant to start my compulsory community service yet I still have no idea at which hospital in the country I am going to be placed. I am expected to pack up my life, relocate and be ready to start my new job without any problem,” one doctor wrote.

They claimed on October 24 the department informed them that all community service posts had been funded and that placement algorithms had started running, but gave no fixed timeline on the results.

At the end of October the department informed them that placement algorithms had been run and results been signed off by the director general’s office. They said these would be released by November 1.

That date has long passed but there are still no results, with the department telling them that “there have been further administrative delays”.

“Approval for digital release has not yet been provided for community service applications. No timeline has been provided.”

Another doctor wrote: “The online system was then updated with a notice indicating that the allocations are still in progress – contradictory to the notice two days prior that the placements had been allocated and signed off.”

He said last Tuesday they were informed that the current delays in the release of medical community service posts were precipitated by the resignation of the director general for health, Precious Matsoso, on November 1. They were told the deputy director general had to step in to conclude the procedure.

“Year after year this department fails to meet deadlines to place its junior doctors for mandatory internship and community service years.

“Yet again the department has failed to meet its own deadlines and no communication as to when they will release this.

“For an allocation process that has been running twice a year for years, they still can’t seem to get it right,” said another doctor.

“We’re one week into November and we have been told that the department does not have a timeline for when we will know where we spend the next year of our lives.

“The department of health fails to recognise that we have lives outside the health care system,” said the intern doctor.

Dr Akhtar Hussain, Sama representative, said last week they met with the health department, trade unions and non-government organisations as well as some universities to get to the bottom of the delays.

“We were told the department was waiting for final exam results from medical schools and then there was the issue about the resignation of the director general, but that cannot affect internship allocation,” he said.

It is, however, unclear why the department would need to wait for exam results of doctors who had graduated two years ago, and already completed two years of internship at government hospitals across the country.

Numerous attempts to get comment from the department of health spokesperson, Popo Maja, were unsuccessful.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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