CAPE TOWN - With the country’s junior doctors having finally been placed for their internship training, calls have been made for the national health department to address the “chronic problem” of placements.
Despite meetings all year with assurance that junior doctors would get placement for their internship training, in early December about 2 300 students were still unsure of their immediate future in the medical field, South African Medical Association (Sama) Employed Doctor's Forum national chairperson Dr Akhtar Hussain said.
According to Hussain this has been an issue for the department for about ten years, leaving many students feeling anxious.
“Most of the interns who qualified in December 2021 from South African Medical institutions have been placed but those who are repeating one or two modules are not placed yet. The challenges are why placement of internships (were) announced just before Christmas,” Hussain said.
“This has been chronic problems by the national department of health, always blaming Treasury (for) not giving funds for internship training… or poor planning and management by the national health department.”
He said the last minute placements would have many consequences for students including issues of accommodation, challenges in relocating from one province to another and transportation during the holiday season among others.
Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale said a total of 2 469 medical Interns were placed with no outstanding unplanned students eligible for internship for this semester at the moment.
“The overall delay was caused by financial constraints to cover the total demand as the department has committed to place all eligible SA citizens all at once and not in bits and pieces. Therefore, the department first secured total funding with the National Treasury,” Mohale said.
“In order to alleviate these challenges in the future, the department has done projections over the three year medium term fund period, which should assist the National Treasury to plan the funding for the forecast period,” he said.
Mohale says the department has been in constant consultation with all applicants on an individual basis and furthermore the health receiving facilities have put in place plans to assist and receive the applicants to their respective facilities, including relocations and accommodation.
The development comes on the back of nursing students having last week said they were annoyed by the disregard shown to them by the Health Department after community service nurses’contracts ended and many were allegedly shown the door without any promise of employment.
In a statement, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) Student Movement said it was disappointed.
Cape Times