Durban - Medical students in the province have openly revolted against a new programme aimed at placing them in KwaZulu-Natal’s rural areas for internships.
The students told Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo on Tuesday that they did not want the programme because it was not equipped to accommodate their needs.
Dhlomo said Premier Willies Mchunu, the provincial cabinet, and National Health Council members, who included Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi, were excited about the programme - the first of its kind in the country.
Hundreds of young people currently studying medicine in Cuba would also benefit from it.
However, the University of KwaZulu-Natal students complained about the lack of study facilities, libraries for research, facilities to write and submit their assignments and lack of shops.
They also complained about the shortage of doctors to teach them as they mostly relied on nurses who would sometimes say: “I am not getting paid to teach you.”
This left students too afraid to ask important questions, they said.
The final-year students vented their concerns during a discussion on the Decentralised Clinical Training Platform (DCTP), which was introduced to decentralise internships to other hospitals across the country, instead of having them in Durban hospitals, close to the university where they attend lectures.
The discussion took place at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. It was meant for students to give feedback to the university and department about their experience of the programme, which was piloted in hospitals such as Ngwele-zane, Port Shepstone and Madadeni, which had been equipped with lecture theatres.
Fifth-year medical students representative Phumelele Yeni said: “We firmly state that the final-year students of 2017 should not be subjected to this programme.”
She said more than 100 students held a meeting in November and signed a petition voicing their opposition.
“We are extremely unhappy with the programme based on our experiences,” said Yeni.
The revolt is threatening to cause disruption at the university and put the health programme in disarray, and shut down opportunities for students to do their practical work. It will also deny thousands of rural people access to medical treatment by doctors.
Student Representative Council secretary at the school of medicine, Tumisang Moleke, said the SRC was inundated with student complaints.
“You cannot send out students to a place that does not have simple things that we have here in Durban.
“Before we pressure students into moving there we need to provide adequate resource to enable the students to perform to the best of their abilities,” he said.
Moleko claimed that student leaders were pressured into accepting the programme at the beginning of the year, adding that this has had a negative effect.
“Issues were only solved superficially, and we cannot continue to treat symptoms. We just treat something and next week we are complaining again.
“Where do students go when they have academic problems? Where do you go when you have funding problems? The resources are in Pietermaritzburg or Durban,” he said.
Provincial health deputy director-general responsible for specialised services and clinical support services, Lindiwe Simelane, insisted that “no matter what, the programme will continue”.
“At this point there is no going back,” she said.
Other students said they were happy with the programme.
Dhlomo said all around the country final-year students were demanding to do internship at their favourite hospital.
He said they were deviating from their promises, which they had made when started their medical studies, to return to their “poor,devastated communities”.
“But when we plead with them to do a 12-months rotation in a far-off hospital they tell you: I am not going there, I want to do my rotation at King Edward’,” he said.
Dhlomo said that during his internship he was taught well by nurses.
“This programme would accommodate 220 students who will be coming back from Cuba in 2018.
“You will not at any given time have 500 final-year medical students rotating around King Edward and Prince Mshiyeni hospitals. It is impossible,” he said.
Dhlomo said the department would provide enough qualified doctors to train the students at the hospitals. Other concerns would be addressed.
The head of UKZN’s dermatology department, Professor Ncoza Dlova, said students should learn Zulu to qualify in their profession so that they could communicate with Zulu-speaking patients.
“Why are our students not learning Zulu, because you spend less time with a patient if you speak the patient’s language? If you have to speak through an interpreter, the nurses, there is a shortage of nurses,” she said.
Health MEC in Limpopo province Phophi Ramathuba, former president of the South African Medical Association, said the government was working hard to address students’ concern about the programme.
“Decentralising the programme assists us in making sure doctors get to be distributed throughout the country.
“Every doctor wants to work in the city, and you will find that there are too many of them in the city,” she said.
Sibongiseni Dhlomo
The Mercury