Doc: Come on call with us
2009-07-07 08:52
Johannesburg - A senior specialist at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto on Tuesday challenged the public to accompany doctors on hospital rounds.
"This [labour action by doctors] is not about inadequate lampshades in on-call bedrooms that doctors never see once on a 32-hour shift," wrote William Edridge in a letter to The Star newspaper.
He was reacting to public criticism of doctors and other medical workers who embarked on an illegal strike last month to protest against low salaries and bad working conditions.
Acknowledging that it was a "very difficult task" to administer public hospitals, Edridge said this had always been the case.
"But when daily meetings at Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital highlight broken equipment, unpaid maintenance contracts, absent intravenous fluids, absent essential medicines, unpaid nursing overtime and subsequent reluctance to work extra shifts to maintain a bare minimum staff complement, junior doctors feel that... inefficiency is not being exposed.
"Add to this the phenomenal extra burden of HIV and the increasing numbers of patients pouring through the doors...
"This is about appalling conditions and impossible shortages that turn a daily struggle for professional survival into a nightmare.
"I challenge anyone who believes that young doctors are not working well enough to go on call with those doctors," said Edridge.
The SA Medical Association is this week holding secret ballots to determine whether its members accept or reject a revised wage offer by the government.
Meanwhile, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for health, Sibongiseni Dhlomo, published a full-page advert in newspapers on Tuesday, updating the public on talks between the government and trade unions following the crippling strike by doctors countrywide.
It said that "doctors from throughout KwaZulu-Natal earlier met and on their own decided to accept the latest government offer subject to further twigging [sic] to improve it".
The provincial department also confirmed the letters of dismissal that had been issued to 296 doctors in KwaZulu-Natal would be "withdrawn without prejudice".
These matters were decided at a meeting on July 2.
- SAPA