ActionSA says issue of unemployed young doctors must be treated as an emergency & healthcare crisis

CAPE TOWN - ActionSA said that the issue of unemployed young doctors needed to be treated as an emergency and a healthcare crisis.

Member of Parliament and medical doctor, Kgosi Letlape, said there could be no universal healthcare unless state facilities were adequately capacitated.

Leading a mini-debate on the subject on Friday, Letlape said government’s failure to employ recently-qualified doctors was forcing them to emigrate or to find work in private practice.

Letlape said it was unfathomable that thousands of rands and many years were spent on training to become a doctor, with the state even paying for studies abroad, and then doesn’t have the money to employ the graduates.

Dozens of young medical doctors who have completed their community service are desperate for a job and have raised their plight through a series of protests.

Letlape said that state healthcare would continue to deteriorate unless more medical professionals were employed.

"The essential healthcare professionals are a soft target for methods to balance inadequate budgets that are poorly managed."

Letlape's suggested that government do away with deputy ministers, scrap advertising for the National Health Insurance and use grants for this purpose to employ young doctors.

"Diverting the tax subsidy from medical aid to fund human resources, introducing line budgeting for provisional health budgets to ring fence funds for human resources, drugs, essential equipment and maintenance."

Letlape said that MPs were being blocked from conducting proper oversight in state facilities while staff were gagged from speaking up about their working conditions.