The SA Medical Association’s (SAMA) planned march to Parliament on Friday afternoon to protest the declining state of public health services has received the support of various political parties and organisations.
However, the health ministry has threatened participating doctors with dismissal or losing a day’s salary, while the African National Congress (ANC) has planned its own ”celebratory” march to take place in the morning.
SAMA is holding the march after the opening of Parliament to protest against a range of issues, including certain restrictive provisions in the National Health Bill.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said SAMA’s demonstration would be a legal protest so the health ministry had no grounds to threaten disciplinary action.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Thursday the action would not be a strike.
The participants were either self-employed doctors or in the public service and would be acting in their own time.
”There are therefore no grounds for threats of disciplinary action,” he said.
Craven said that while both Cosatu and SAMA supported the need to establish an affordable and accessible healthcare system, it differed with the government on how to achieve this.
In terms of the National Health Bill, health practitioners will have to obtain a Certificate of Need (CoN) to provide health services, or to establish or operate a health establishment or agency, such as a clinic, hospital or surgery.
There should be greater transparency and accountability in the regulations governing the CoN.
”These regulations must be modified to ensure that individual doctors do not bear unnecessary and excessive costs,” he said.
DA health spokesperson Sandy Kalyan said the ANC’s actions were an unjustified attack on the doctors who were exercising their constitutional rights.
”The ANC has exposed its hypocrisy: It champions the right to protest, provided it or one of its own isn’t the target of the protest,” she said.
She further criticised the health department’s attitude and said Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang should be fired.
”For the second year in a row, failures in her portfolio have been the focus of marches to the opening of Parliament.”
Last year the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) marched in protest to the government’s failure to roll out Nevirapine for HIV-positive pregnant mothers.
”The minister risks turning South Africa from a leader in healthcare into a third world service provider,” Kalyan said.
African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) spokesperson Cheryllyn Dudley said the obstacles facing the health profession were valid and that disgruntled doctors had the right to make their voices heard.
”The department of health is missing the point of the march. The proposed Certificate of Need (CoN) and the state of public hospitals are all valid concerns that the ACDP shares,” she said.
United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa said government was displaying a complete disregard for the doctors’ democratic rights.
Government’s current approach would achieve nothing, but alienate more health professionals and speed up the ”medical brain drain”.
He urged the government to review the National Health Bill, which needs only President Thabo Mbeki’s signature to become law.
New National Party (NNP) spokesperson Dr Kobus Gous said the action was an indication of the bad relationship between the sector and government.
”Generally health workers would not resort to this kind of drastic measures like a protest march. Therefore this is a further indication of the seriousness of the situation which warrants immediate attention,” he said.
In a separate statement, the TAC said, more than 80% of South Africans used the public health system yet more than 50% of health-care expenditure went towards the private sector — much of this spent on exorbitant medicine prices and hospital fees.
”The TAC believes that the creation of a unified health system with substantial new public investment in which all people have equitable access to health-care is critical to addressing the health crisis in South Africa.
”The TAC says that any health-care workers who have action taken against them for participating in (the) march will have the full support of our organisation.”
GPNet, with a membership of more than 2 600 doctors around South Africa, the SA Managed Care Cooperative (SAMCC) representing 3 600 doctors, and Netpartners Investment Ltd, an organisation consisting of more than 5 900 medical professionals, as well as the country’s largest private hospital group, Netcare, also voiced their support for the march.
”Together these organisations represent most of the doctors in private practice in South Africa,” a statement said. – Sapa