has denied claims by the Junior Doctors Association of South Africa that too many trainee doctors are in limbo each year because little notice is taken of the logistics and difficulties of distant placement.
Although the health department is adamant that no qualifying interns or community service officers remain unplaced year in and year out,paints a picture of scores regularly having to wait for placement each year because of unexpected events such as exam rewrites, pregnancy, maternity leave, child-care, mental health breakdowns, provincial health department dysfunction or late posting notification to distant provinces posing logistical problems.
The first R147-million was to enable the mid-year intern intake to be paid for the remainder of this year. Health budget strategy planners at the treasury have recommended that an extra R1-billion be budgeted annually for at least the next three years to address the increased medical student output and placement. This has yet to be approved by the ministerial committee.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, chairperson of the South African Medical Association , said she was assured by the ICSP last week that there were sufficient funded posts for the impending 2022 medical intern intake, but she had no data on community service funded posts. At present about 1 000 South African trainees return home annually from Cuba for a one-year local medical campus “adaptation” course after their strongly primary healthcare-oriented training.
Asked about the health department’s response Tlali said, “That’s a very subtle way of saying it’s not my problem — that my job is simply to place people for January and July.”