Health Minister DR Aaron Motsoaledi says in an Eyewitness News report that he is disappointed and highly distressed that some interns and doctors who started work in last month have still not received their January salaries.
The report says the South African Medical Association (Sama) had had reached an agreement with the administrations of health sectors in various provinces that salaries would be paid by this past week, however, some doctors have been left hanging and have still not received their payments.
Motsoaledi says he doesn't understand how something like this could happen. “The issue of the payment of salaries should not be a complex one. All that was left was to capture the details of each and every doctor in each province and start paying them. We are so disappointed.”
More than 400 interns and community service doctors have not been paid their January salaries, according to the Gauteng Health Department. Bhekisisa reports that junior doctors are supposed to be paid on the last day of the month. However, when the department failed to pay out last month, it assured new graduates that they would be paid by 7 February.
But, the report says, interns and community service doctors from at least 10 hospitals in the province said they were still without payment as of late Thursday. Although some doctors received a courtesy call letting them know salaries would be further delayed, many heard nothing at all from hospital human resources departments.
[link url="https://playground.mg.co.za/article/2019-02-08-00-gauteng-unpaid-doctors-many-salaries-unpaid-missed-deadline-interns/"]Bhekisisa report[/link]
[link url="https://ewn.co.za/2019/02/10/motsoaledi-disappointed-over-non-payment-of-doctors-salaries"]Eyewitness News report[/link]