Foreign doctors say they are being treated like slaves compared with Cuban doctors, reports Philippa Garson
Some foreign and local doctors are smouldering at the red-carpet treatment handed out to the Cuban doctors. A second batch of Cubans arrived from Havana last week.
Disgruntled at their Cuban colleagues’ welcome, foreign doctors who have been working here for years complain they are being treated like unwanted slaves in comparison.
And a group of private South African doctors has sent a wad of complaints to the Interim National Medical and Dental Council, alleging malpractice by three Cuban doctors at Kuruman hospital in the Northern Cape.
The arrival of the Cuban doctors (210 altogether) is part of a government-to- government agreement — the health department’s latest policy in responding to the shortage of doctors. Rather than encouraging individual doctors from all over the world to work here, the government is arranging “batches” of doctors from particular countries. So far another agreement has been struck with Germany, but only four willing doctors have sufficient experience.
The department has begun to stop doctors from other African countries coming here as there has been friction with some of those countries, notably Zimbabwe, scared of losing their health professionals. The quality of the training of many of these doctors has also been found wanting.
“We were getting large numbers of applicants from African countries. The council felt we were taking doctors away from other countries to the detriment of their health services,” said the registrar of the Interim National Medical and Dental Council, Nico Prinsloo.
Of 1 991 foreign doctors living in South Africa last year, 597 were African, 531 from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and 501 from East European countries.
The council has also put the brakes on foreign doctors arriving to work here in their individual capacity. A moratorium has been placed on the examinations to evaluate foreign doctors. Instead, the council evaluates them by visiting countries where agreements have been made and giving the doctors oral exams.
Prinsloo said the advantage of the new system is that doctors can be placed where they are needed. “In the past, foreign doctors didn’t always stay where they were needed. They tended to go to the more attractive cities, rather than the rural areas.”
But the South African Foreign Doctors’ Association charges that the doctors who have been working here for years in the ailing public sector are not being fairly treated and are beginning to leave in droves. Whereas there were 2 300 foreign doctors three years ago, there are now 1 700 (excluding the Cuban doctors.)
‘The behaviour towards us is humiliating and insulting. We are being treated like slaves,” said Dr Shahid Amin, based at Vereeniging hospital. “We can’t leave the hospital, we are forced to work long hours, and our career prospects are limited.
“If the government-to-government arrangement is working, we have no problem with it. And we welcome the Cuban doctors and anyone else who is joining the public sector. But we would like equal treatment for all the doctors. No one should be privileged.”
Dr Safdar Malick, who is based at Sebokeng Hospital, said while Cuban doctors are provided with furnished residences and welcomed with banquets, other foreign doctors are made to feel unwelcome. Malick added that while Sebokeng hospital recently employed 40 doctors, it now has only 19 and is cracking under the strain.
Chief Director of Hospitals Tim Wilson said he is not aware of a major exodus of foreign or local doctors. Although 1 500 posts are still vacant, the Cuban doctors are making a significant difference in many places.
“We don’t want to negate the good work being done by other doctors — both local and foreign — in rural areas, but the Cubans are coming into vacant posts.We have to recognise that many of them are very senior people who have left their families behind. We need to say thank you for that.”
In Kuruman, a group of doctors in private practice allege that 10 patients have been maltreated by Cuban doctors. But some local health workers believe this is a case of sour grapes because private GPs have lost their contracts to do state work.
Northern Cape regional health manager Marian Loveday said the Cuban doctors are “more than up to scratch. We now have better service here than we’ve ever had before.”
Cuban Dr Noris Castro said she and “all her comrades” are not afraid of misinformation. “We are doing our jobs very well. We did not come here for the money. We came because this country needs lots of doctors. Many of their own doctors are running away. We have come here to help the poor.”