WC health care faces total shutdown
Last updated: Thursday, July 02, 2009 PrintGovernment may need to call on the military and the private sector to assist with public health care if doctors in the Western Cape decide to escalate their protest action to a full strike.
This follows widespread disapproval of the latest offer emerging from Bargaining Council negotiations.
A strong spirit of unity and camaraderie was present as hundreds of public health care doctors from around Cape Town convened at Groote Schuur hospital this morning to decide on their next course of action.
This comes after doctors here staged a walk-out on Friday afternoon with only emergency services available to the public.
OSD not implemented after one year
It is exactly one year since government’s proposed Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) for doctors was supposed to have taken effect. The OSD aims to adjust salaries for doctors to be in line with their qualifications and experience.
Vice-president of the Junior Doctors Association (Judasa), Dr Zameer Brey, says delivery of public health care is a government prerogative and doctors should not be held responsible.
“Having said this, we are very sensitive to the fact that our doctors want to give the care as best as possible and so we don’t want to do this in an irresponsible manner,” he says.
State needs to provide alternative health care
Western Cape Sama chairperson Dr Mark Sonderup said doctors would reconvene on Friday after they had time to study the details of the offer and consult with their colleagues in other parts of the country.
“The critical decision is if people reject this offer, what is the next step and logically the next step is complete shutdown,” says Sonderup. If this happens, the government will need to provide an alternative or patients will have to seek private medical treatment.
Junior docs say they are forced to strike
Brey said the decision to strike was not easy. “As a junior doctor I want to emphasise this strike action is not what we want. This is against everything we want to do. Government has painted us into a corner and we don’t have many options left.
“I think it is very unfortunate that we now have to seriously consider shutting down entire services. This will mean that even emergency services need to be run by whoever the government deems an appropriate provider of care – whether it is the military or the private sector,” said Brey.
“Responsible” strike in WC
In the meantime, the doctors will continue picketing. Sonderup says protest action in the Western Cape has been handled in a “very responsible” manner by enforcing minimum service levels.
This means that emergency cases are being treated and basic critical services like dialysis, cancer treatments and emergency surgeries are continuing.
“This allows people the constitutional right to protest and to demonstrate whilst trying to minimise the impact on patient care,” he says.
Doctors were also not happy with the address by Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Molefi Sefularo, at Groote Schuur, earlier this morning. The Minister was criticised for being completely unprepared. A specialist physician interviewed said the Minister mainly emphasised improvements to the salaries of senior medical staff, leaving out the people who do the bulk of the work.
Government “talking in circles”
He accused government of dragging out the negotiation process by talking in circles. “As long as the government doesn’t take us seriously, as long as they are talking in circles and don’t answer our questions, we can’t get through this painful negotiation process.”
Brey said that while the new offer was an improvement on last week, it was “nowhere close to where it should be”.
He said the Ministers address met with mixed emotions. Some doctors respect the fact that he had addressed them directly while others felt that it was a “token address” and didn’t really get to the issues.
Brey said the new offer does not get close to the 50% increase doctors have been demanding for the last eight months.
Western Cape doctors also said they want their KwaZulu Natal colleagues who were dismissed after striking, to be reinstated, before they will consider returning to work.
(Thania Gopal, Health24, July 2009)
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