Health minister’s arrogance turns back on jobless doctors

It is an astounding example of arrogance and an inability to read the room – especially in a country desperately in need of medical professionals – that Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi should, effectively, insult and turn his back on young, jobless, qualified doctors.

Commenting on protests by these doctors that they cannot find employment, Motsoaledi said they would not be given special treatment and then told them they should either go into private practice or leave the country.

There are currently 500 unemployed doctors in this country – and it goes without saying that, every day, patients wait for hours to be attended, or be ignored completely, at state hospitals and clinics because there are not enough doctors.

Motsoaledi may be correct in saying there is not a budget to employ these medics, but that begs a few observations.

Firstly, that there is no money for such a basic human right as health is down to the fact the minister’s comrades in the ANC and their accomplices have systematically looted the state’s coffers for the last 30 years, even as they made high-flown promises of providing “a better life for all”.

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Also, the reality is that all medical training in this country is to a greater or lesser extent subsidised by the government – so taxpayers are paying to have more doctors.

What Motsoaledi is effectively saying is: We don’t care. And he’d be right. Caring for taxpayer money is not on the ANC’s priority list.

Unemployed doctors’ spokesperson Dr Philisiwe Ngcai said: “This is proof that our leaders, cushioned by the privileges of accessing top-tier private health care, fail to understand the urgency and gravity of these challenges.”

He was also spot on when he said the “reckless statements” came while Motsoaledi’s office “is actively working on implementing the National Health Insurance”.

It’s a sick situation.

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