Vavi warns of health crisis
2009-05-29 18:16
Pretoria - The salaries of doctors and the conditions they work under in the public sector are awful, Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi said on Friday.
"Doctors pay must be raised and their working conditions improved," he said to the applause of protesting doctors in Pretoria.
"It takes eight hours to admit a patient in the public health sector; that must be improved," he said.
He warned that the public sector was a "looming crisis".
Vavi described doctors' salaries and working conditions as "awful".
"We want action now; address the crisis before it explodes and becomes a major crisis," he said.
Marching to health department
Doctors marched to the department of health's offices in the city on Friday to protest about low salaries and poor working conditions.
They called on the government to implement the occupation specific dispensation (OSD), as agreed in 2007.
The OSD was meant to improve their salaries, and supposed to have been implemented by June last year.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, flanked by his deputy, Molefi Sefularo, accepted a memorandum from the doctors.
Motsoaledi said all issues raised in the document were being addressed.
"The OSD is being addressed at a level higher than mine," he said.
"I understand your pain, I am a doctor, and once worked in a hospital; I experience your situation."
'Give us the deadline'
He said the issues raised would be looked into.
"Give us the time frame, [the] deadline!" doctors shouted.
March co-ordinator Lizzy Kwenda said earlier that the doctors at Friday's protest were not neglecting their patients.
"We are marching to better conditions in the public sector, for you not to be in long queues."
Kwenda said doctors were tired of conditions in the public health sector.
"We cannot take it anymore. The health system has collapsed," she said.
About 300 private and public doctors took to the streets of Pretoria on Friday demanding better salaries and conditions of employment.
50% hike in salaries
The SA Medical Association, which organised the march, is hoping salaries will rise by at least 50% through the introduction of the OSD.
But the health department has rejected this figure as arbitrary.
During the protest, doctors wearing white gowns with black armbands held up placards reading: "Bus drivers earn more than doctors" and "Public health needs cash injection".
Kwenda said the armbands symbolised the "death" of the health system.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA, Cosatu, the ANC Youth League and the Federation of Trade Unions of South Africa all said they supported the doctors' march.
- SAPA