HAILED as a victory for state doctors who worked extraordinarily long hours, putting their lives and those of their patients at risk, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s department will now increase the number of doctors by establishing more medical schools.
The Department of Health has disclosed that a shortage of medical professionals at hospitals was the reason why doctors are working overly long hours.
The department has come under fire recently after the death of medical intern Ilne Markwat, who was killed in a car crash after falling asleep behind the wheel as she made her way home from working a long shift.
Markwat, 25, had been an intern at Paarl Hospital’s obstetrics unit, where young doctors complained of working up to 40-hour shifts.
The young doctor crashed into oncoming traffic, leaving Carol Mostert, 45, and her fiancé, Johannes Pretorius, 47, critically injured.
Mostert’s family have indicated that they intend taking action against the department.
Many doctors, including Junior Doctors’ Association of SA (Judasa) and Safe Working Hours campaign members, have blamed the Department of Health and the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) for Markwat’s tragic death.
Motsoaledi’s department has since asked the HPCSA to revisit the policy.
Motsoaledi’s spokesperson, Joe Maila, said South Africa had been “hard hit” by a lack of qualified doctors at public hospitals. He said the department was looking at increasing the amount of doctors in the country by establishing more medical schools at universities.
“There are empty posts and increasing the amount of doctors at hospitals would mean shorter shifts for existing staff,” he said.
Judasa chairperson Zahid Badroodien said South Africa’s medical industry had been hit by “serious human resource shortages”.
“As a result of serious human resource shortages, it is impossible to end the commuted overtime system. We believe serious consideration must be applied to the possibility of 12-hour shifts within rotations, and adequate rest facilities on site to be made available for all health staff who have far exceeded the legal limit of continuous hours of work.”
He said Judasa’s position was that doctors must enforce their contractual obligation to cease work after 30 hours of continuous work, adding that nothing was being done to address the current issue and find a solution to the problem.
“The department is currently in the process of revising the overtime policy. However, this is not in the favour of the health professional.”
He said the department wanted to extend doctors’ working week to include weekends. “The department and minister expect medical staff to work longer and harder. They have failed to meet and to discuss potential solutions for this dire situation.”
Western Cape Department of Health spokesperson Mark van der Heever said the provincial department had set up a task team which will look into the matter and provide recommendations to the head of department, Beth Engelbrecht. “Additional to this the national department has also given recommendations on this matter.”
Maila said the HPCSA had been tasked with looking into remedying the situation. Asked if the HPCSA had been given a deadline to come up with solutions, he replied: “I cannot say whether they have been given a deadline, but they are looking into it.”
HPCSA spokesperson Daphney Chuma said the HPCSA only provided guidelines, “which are not law”.