Doctors’ protests suspended… for now
The leadership of SAMA Limpopo had an urgent meeting with the provincial leadership of COSATU on Saturday after gathering reports on the “impaired state of healthcare services in various hospitals within the province.”
POLOKWANE – This is the result of a protest action by doctors because of the non-payment or part-payment and some wrongly categorised payments to certain categories of doctors in the public service in Limpopo.
The provincial leadership of COSATU intervened by securing a meeting with the Premier of Limpopo to deliberate on the issues faced by healthcare professionals, doctors in particular, in the province. The meeting with the Premier is scheduled to take place on Wednesday.
The provincial leadership of COSATU has pleaded with doctors, in the interest of service delivery, to temporarily suspend the implementation of the resolution the South African Medical Association (Sama) Limpopo took regarding commuted overtime and resume both their normal and overtime duties with immediate effect until the meeting of the Premier and Provincial Leadership of COSATU has taken place.
1 February 2018
“Healthcare will be at a standstill until we get paid in full”
POLOKWANE – Some categories of doctors will gather today at the head office of the Department of Health as medical practitioners at various levels were either paid their salaries partially or not paid at all.
They intend staying there until all the medical practitioners are paid in full (the only proof that will be accepted shall be the presence of money in the bank accounts of the affected medical practitioners) and all the concerned managers responsible for the late or non-payment of affected doctors, receive precautionary suspension letters pending the outcome of investigations. The general consensus of the doctors are “we are not moving an inch” until the matter is resolved.
The non-payment and other problems occurred despite the assurance from both the administrators (as per circular 03 of 2018) and the political head of the Department of Health.
“What is also disturbing is that some medical officers were given the salary of a community service medical officer and those in community service given the salary of a medical intern,” Dr Seshoka Muila, Secretary of the South African Medical Association in Limpopo said.
He said as per resolution taken at a well-attended meeting of all the Limpopo medical doctors in the province on 18 January, coupled with the urgency of the matter.
• Medical practitioners (i.e. medical interns, community service medical officers, medical officers and specialists) shall gather outside the headquarters of the Department of Health, on 1 February 07:30.
• The doctors will hand over a memorandum of demands to the political head of the department and no one else at 09:00.
• They will remain outside the employers’ headquarters until all the medical practitioners are paid in full.
“We also wish to indicate that while we await the realisation of such demands, all the services in health institutions within the province shall be at a standstill with the exception of the following critical areas such as ICU and high care, labour/maternity and the neonatal ward. The emergency theatre and any emergency within the hospital will be at a standstill,” Muila said.
He added they wished to reiterate the fact that the MEC must hold accountable those responsible for this disaster which threatens the stability of our healthcare system in Limpopo. “We still expect of the MEC to properly exercise her leadership role and demote, suspend and/or dismiss all those who continue to undermine the medical profession and treat it as a non-essential service within the department.”
