/ 23 June 2009

Doctors’ strike hits KZN, Free State hospitals

Some KZN and Free State hospitals were shut down on Tuesday as doctors protested over salaries, the SA Registrars' Association said.

Some KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Free State hospitals were shut down on Tuesday as doctors took to the streets in protest over delays in implementing a new salary scale, the South African Registrars’ Association (Sara) said.

”Only hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal and Free State were shut down due to the strike action on Tuesday.

”Gauteng and the Eastern Cape decided to await the outcome of tomorrow’s [Wednesday] meeting,” Sara president Lebogang Phahladira told the South African Press Association.

The South African Medical Association, representing doctors, would meet the government over the implementation of the occupation-specific dispensation — a revised salary structure intended to improve the salaries of public-sector workers — on Wednesday.

A total of 450 public-sector doctors protested outside the Nelson R Mandela Medical School in Durban.

They vowed to wear red and protest in silence on Wednesday.

”We will stand here tomorrow and there will be no singing out of respect for those patients dying and suffering from HIV/Aids and TB,” said Dr Rinesh Chetty.

He was addressing the doctors at the medical school on the second day of a strike by the public-sector doctors.

”Doctors will show their compassion by wearing red on Wednesday because we want government to take HIV and Aids seriously.”

He told Sapa the strike was not only about wages, but also about the deteriorating conditions they had to work under.

Dozens of motorists hooted in support of the white-coated doctors, who had lined Umbilo Road outside the medical school since 9am.

Several Durban hospitals were affected by the strike. The KwaZulu-Natal health department said in a statement that King Edward VIII, Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central, Addington and Prince Mshiyeni hospitals were only taking emergency cases.

Spokesperson Chris Maxon said other Durban hospitals were operating with skeleton staff.

Maxon said, however, that other districts in KwaZulu-Natal reported 100% attendance.

”We are also told that in areas such as Pietermaritzburg, doctors used their lunch breaks to go out and picket and come back to their patients, which we view as a mature and responsible step.”

Provincial health minister Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said the provision of healthcare was a constitutional imperative that the department would work hard to protect.

”For this reason, we brought in the … military health services to assist in some hospitals around Durban from last night.

”We are calling on all retired and private doctors to come out and assist where they can.”

Dhlomo had also stepped in to help at various hospitals around Durban. — Sapa