Doctors’ protest action spreads
A doctor that did not want to be named said that doctors at the hospital ‘took a collective decision to go on a go-slow’.
‘It means that we are offering emergency services, as in casualty and emergency services in the wards, as needed. But doctors will be sitting-in in their tea room and they will be carrying placards and demonstrating’, he said.
Protest action at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, the largest health care centre in the southern hemisphere, started yesterday afternoon ahead of a crucial bargaining council meeting to be held this morning.
The protest action started at Dr George Mukhari Hospital in Tshwane, Gauteng, last Thursday. It has since spread to a number of hospitals in Limpopo, the North West where 50 doctors were dismissed in Mafikeng as well as to the Free State, the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. Reading from his notes, the anonymous Chris Hani Baragwanath doctor listed their demands as follows:
‘Safe working conditions and better resources to improve patient care, immediate filling of vacant posts, OSD implementation as presented to the bargaining council with effect as soon as possible, immediate reinstatement of doctors dismissed in the North West without any disciplinary action’.
‘If all of this is not agreed to within 48 hours, then this may escalate’, he added, warning of a possible full-scale national strike action.
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