Cape Town - Vice-chairperson of the SA Medical Association (Sama) Mark Sonderup expressed concern about junior doctors who were still unplaced.
About 40 doctors are still not placed to their community service posts in order for them to obtain their qualification.
“The requirement for an internship is a statutory legal requirement, you cannot be a doctor without doing your community service,” Sonderup said.
He pleaded with the Department of Health to urgently do something about the situation.
“We are asking that the obfuscation stops immediately and that this issue stops immediately,” he said.
Sonderup said it was against the law not to placing students.
“We shouldn’t even be having this discussion, not placing junior doctors is against the law,” he said.
The Junior Doctors Association of SA (Judasa) said its online chat group has been inundated by health-care professionals who fear they may be unemployed.
The Department of Health claimed they resolved the issue with their online application system for community service doctors.
But according to Judasa, the system has not improved at all.
Many junior doctors said they could not gain access to the website while others who could were unable to apply or view any positions.
Judasa Theresa Mwesigwa said: “I cannot comment at this time about the matter.”
Health consultant Johann Serfontein said, “it’s concerning that this issue rises every year and its deeply disappointing that nothing has been done to rectify the issue”.
Many of the health professionals have also raised questions regarding the department’s strict placement policies, which they claim forces them to work in rural areas. They said being married or pregnant carries no weight in being placed.
“We have a seriously severe shortage of doctors in the country and we need to get these doctors placed because if they are not they can’t be qualified doctors and they can’t practice,” Serfontein said.
MEC for Health Nomafrench Mbombo said: “The placement and allocation of junior doctors is a national function in collaboration with provinces which must accommodate them.
“Appointing junior doctors is relatively costly, not only on salaries but also the allocation of time of senior clinicians as they cannot work unsupervised.
"The Western Cape Department of Health will welcome any attempt from National Treasury to dedicate extra funds to appoint junior doctors in the health system," she said.
@MarvinCharles17