Unemployed KZN doctors to continue protesting

Unemployed KZN doctors to continue protesting

Doctors who are demanding jobs in KZN's public health facilities have vowed to continue camping outside the offices of the provincial health department.

Unemployed Doctors protesting in PMB KZN
Supplied

One of the organisers of the sit-in, Dr Kenneth Sithole, says they will continue to sleep at the offices until they hear back from authorities.

 

"We are available, and we are ready to actually work. That is what formed the decision for us to actually camp here.

 

"Because it is the president himself of this country who said if at any stage people feel that they are not being heard, they must actually go and sit there and show the people that have the power to make the decision that they are actually there and are ready to actually work.”

 

A large group marched to the Natalia Building in Pietermaritzburg on Monday.

 READ: Unemployed KZN doctors protest over jobs

They handed over a memorandum of demands to officials and gave the department, the Office of the Premier, and the provincial Treasury three days to respond.

 

"The WHO [World Health Organisation] recommends that one doctor be assigned to every 1000 patients, but as it stands now in the country, for every doctor, there are 3000 patients.

 

“We demand a long-term plan. It cannot be that every year doctors and health care workers have to come and stand outside and go on a march demand employment when access to healthcare is the right of every citizen in this country," added Sithole.

 

According to the organisers, there are over 230 jobless doctors in KZN.




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