Mon séjour en Afrique du Sud (Cape Town)

THE KwaZulu-Natal Health Department may call in the SA National Defence Force for assistance should state doctors, paramedics, pharmacists and dentists in the province go on strike today.

However, Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo said yesterday that the department was optimistic medical personnel would not strike.

“Should there be a strike, the department will seek assistance from the SANDF, but we don’t believe the strike will take off,” he said. However, King Edward VIII Hospital doctor Shailendra Sham vowed there would be a complete “shutdown” of KZN hospitals.

“The problem is that the government is constantly denying the crisis in the county’s health care system, even when doctors say they will strike,” Sham said.

“I have been on the phone and liaising via e-mail with my colleagues… and I know for sure that the vast majority of KZN health services will shut down. The strike will continue indefinitely,” he said.

Doctors from Jubilee Hospital in Hammanskraal and George Mukhari Hospital in Garankuwa, both in Pretoria, went on strike on April 16. This led to service disruptions at several state hospitals and spread to other provinces.

The doctors say the government has promised to improve their salaries and working conditions after the completion of the nurses’ occupation specific dispensation programme in July 2007.

However, this has not materialised. The government has offered public sector doctors increases ranging from 0.28 percent to 5 percent, while the doctors are demanding salary adjustments of 50 percent to 70 percent, as well as better working conditions.

The SA Medical Association (Sama) said state doctors were paid 50 percent to 65 percent less than other professionals in the public service. It said senior doctors on the same pay band as senior engineers were paid less than the engineers, while junior doctors were paid the same salary as a state director’s personal assistant.

Dhlomo urged health care workers not to participate in the illegal strike. “I would like to urge you not to make our people collateral victims. We would expect all of you to be at work and to allow the logical conclusion of the negotiation process,” he said.

Durban Coastal Sama spokesman Akhtar Hussain said the association was dissatisfied with the delay in the negotiations.

Health Department national spokesman Fidel Hadebe said the talks would resume on Wednesday and that the department would ensure that the impact of a strike was minimised.

KZN doctors will be joined in the strike by their counterparts in the Eastern Cape.

In Gauteng, doctors will decide today whether to join the action.