Doctors’ strike spreads ahead of crucial meeting
Yesterday (thurs), doctors at Chris Hani Baragwanath, the biggest hospital in the country, joined at least 24 other hospitals in industrial action by declaring an immediate go-slow.
The hospital is only offering emergency services but doctors have threatened a full strike within 48 hours if their demands are not met.
Doctors are angered by government’s failure to implement an ‘occupational specific dispensation’ (OSD) increase promised in July last year.
Government doctors are being underpaid by between 50 and 75 percent underpaid, according to a study by the SA Medical Association (SAMA).
Strikes, go-slows and protests have already affected at least 24 hospitals countrywide.
Yesterday, hospital management at George Mukhari Hospital in Gauteng informed doctors of their intention to get an interdict against strikers, who became the first doctors to down stethoscopes on 16 April.
The industrial action is being co-ordinated by the Doctors’ Forum on OSD which was formed in Pretoria last Friday after doctors claimed that SAMA had failed to represent them properly in negotiations with government.
‘We, as Forum of Doctors have consciously and officially sidelined SAMA which has showed us unequivocally that they do not represent their constituency mandate and as such we are declaring our independence in our approach dealings and negotiations,’ according a Forum statement.
SAMA has urged the doctors to return to work while negotiations with government are underway.
SAMA’s Adele Hansen described the formation of Forum as ‘quite alarming’ but said the association was still investigating and would only comment when it had the full picture.
Meanwhile, Health department spokesperson Fidel Hadebe said government had been working hard on a set of proposals for today’s council meeting.
‘We appeal to [the striking doctors] to get back to work because we are now in a position to reach an amicable resolution to this matter,’ said Hadebe, who cautioned the doctors for embarking on an ‘unprotected [illegal] strike’.
However, Forum members said they felt that the strike needed to be maintained while negotiations were underway to keep government under pressure.
The action is being driven largely by junior doctors and interns who are the lowest paid and are expected to work long hours.
One of the intern leaders of the Doctors’ Forum, who did not want to be named in case she faced disciplinary action, told Health-e that interns often worked 200 hours’ overtime in a month because, aside from their usual daily duties, they were on call at night up to three times a week.
‘It’s not just the pay but also the working conditions. There is such a shortage of doctors so we have too many patients to see. Then the hospitals run out of basic antibiotics and Panados,’ she said.
Dr Rapitse Malatji of George Mukhari Hospital said it was sad that patients were suffering, but that they had no choice. ‘We have not been consulted at any stage and government is not doing what it said it would do,’ he said.
‘Junior doctors work for R7 000 a month and need the overtime money to survive,’ he added.
Dr Nokwethemba Mtshali of Kwa-Mhlanga Hospital in Mpumalanga confirmed that doctors were striking adding that she was worried that patients would suffer ‘but we have to do this’.
Mtshali said she was worried that money would be docked from her R174 000 per year salary, but that she believed government could not afford to fire striking doctors.
‘I am unable to pay off my student loan with the money I am paid, but I know if I went overseas I could pay it off very quickly,’ she said, adding that she did not wish to leave and was committed to working in the public sector where the needs of patients were greatest.
Other Gauteng hospitals affected by strikes are Odi, Jubilee, Tembisa, Mametlhake, George Stegmann Hospitals.
Doctors at Steve Biko Academic Hospital are on a go-slow, while those at Chris Hani Baragwanath, Tambo Memorial and Johannesburg General Hospital are also taking action but holding off a full strike.
In Limpopo, the Polokwane-Makweng Hospital complex is completely closed, while strikes and go-slows have been held at Tshilidzini, Elim, St Rita’s, CN Phatudi, Mokopane, Lebowakgomo, Groblersdal and Philadelphia hospitals.
In North-West, 50 doctors were deregistered after striking in Mafikeng and the hospital has been closed although the doctors have since been re-registered. Rustenburg Hospital is also closed.
In Mpumalanga, Rob Ferreira and Kwa-Mhlanga have shut down.
Five Free State hospitals have also closed, namely Thebe, Mamopo, Elizabeth Ross, Botlhokong and Ditlhabeng.
Yesterday, doctors at Durban’s biggest hospitals, Prince Mshiyeni and King Edward, opted to wait until Tuesday when they expect a reportback from SAMA on government’s offer to them.
An intern at Prince Mshiyeni Hospital told Health-e that he took home R7000 after tax. ‘It’s pathetic to study for so long and so hard only to earn so little. It really does encourage doctors to leave the country after they have finished their internships,’ he said.
In a separate action doctors at Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town are wearing black as part of a silent protest against working conditions. Children are waiting up to 12 hours to be seen in the emergency unit as doctors struggle to cope with the numbers of patients.
Dr Bandile Hadebe, National Chairperson of the Junior Doctors Association of SA (Judasa) which is affiliated to SAMA, said that Judasa was preparing an application for a legal strike should government’s offer fail to satisfy his members.
‘The Occupation Specific Dispensation is not about salary increase, but about a salary adjustment to ensure that doctors are correctly remunerated,’ said Hadebe.
‘It is about recognising that the doctors are underpaid for their skills and services and deserve to be paid at the correct level, like other professionals in the public sectors.’ ‘ Health-e News Service.
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