Dr Lesego Pooe

Secretary-General, United Doctors Forum (UNDF)

Community Service Doctor at George Stegman Hospital in North West

Why did you become a doctor?

I admired doctors while growing up and thought they commanded respect and lived comfortable lifestyles

What are your demands?

Increase in the salary of doctors.

Proper recruitment and retention of staff.

Proper administration within the health department.

Adjustments in the hours worked by doctors.

Proper maintenance of hospital facilities such as lifts and x-ray facilities.

For health department to take doctors seriously.

In your opinion, how did we reach a situation where doctors are striking? Could it have been avoided?

Doctors’€™ strike was not due to salary issues only ‘€“ this had been brewing for a long time because of the pressure doctors work under. Our working conditions are not conducive to serving the patients properly. There were organisations representing doctors but they weren’€™t doing enough and doctors’€™ needs were not being met and that escalated their frustration. If the government had taken health care workers seriously and did not take advantage of us this could have been avoided

What do the doctors you represent take home in terms of salaries (on average)?

Junior doctors: R8 000 per month.

Community Service doctors: R15 000 per month.

Junior specialists: R344 000 per year.

Other than more money, what are the other important issues you would like addressed?

Doctors work long and tiring shifts. We work under shameful conditions where proper medicine for patients is often not available. We would also like the lack of facilities in hospitals addressed as well as the poor leadership in the health department.

Why the split from the South African Medical Association (SAMA)?

The UNDF is not a breakaway organisation, it was formed because there was a need to address the plight of health care workers.We are just a group of doctors who were concerned about the wellbeing of patients and doctors alike and would like to refrain from discussing other organisations.

How many doctors do you represent?

We do not have an actual figure since nobody has to register, but we have about 5 000 sympathisers. We had an imbizo recently and handed out registration forms we are now waiting for these forms to be returned.

Do you think the divisions between SAMA and the UNDF could hurt your aim?

No, but we would welcome any affiliation with any organisation with similar values to strengthen our voice.

Dr Percy Mahlathi the Deputy Director General of Human Resources at the Department of Health says they are only willing to engage with ‘€œlegitimate’€ structures. How will the UNDF make itself ‘€œlegitimate’€?

It suits Dr Mahlathi to say that, but we are now going to register the organisation and then it will be legitimate. For now, we respect that we can’€™t take part in any strike action as we can’€™t protect our members from threats of being fired. But yet we appreciate the work other organisations are doing since it continues to highlight the plight of health care workers.

Are doctors still seriously considering striking despite the threat of being fired?

We are not registered as an organisation yet and can’€™t promise members immunity from the threats that might be made by government. We have not advised doctors belonging to the organisation to strike.

Since the UNDF feels that SAMA is untrustworthy, why can’€™t they vote the leadership of SAMA out within SAMA structures and mandate a new leadership which they trust instead of forming a splinter group?

We are not a breakaway organisation. SAMA had a different agenda to that of doctors and that is why we had to form this one. Not all our members are from SAMA.

We want to improve the state of health care in the public sector because patients and health care workers are suffering alike. We’€™ve tried negotiating with SAMA but realised that our agendas are not the same.