Medical interns allocated to facilities in Mpumalanga have alleged their hospital accommodation has been given to Cuban-trained doctors and doctors from other African countries, and that they have been told to find their own accommodation.
The junior doctors told News24 they were a group of more than 50 medical interns from different provinces allocated to various hospitals in Mpumalanga, and had started their community service on 3 July.
One said: “We were shocked when the hospitals told us they don’t provide accommodation for medical interns. We later discovered that accommodation was only provided to Cuban-trained and foreign doctors from Africa. Others who stay outside the hospital are being compensated by the Mpumalanga Department of Health.”
National Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale said they were aware of the issue.
“This is a new challenge, especially in hospitals that are in rural areas. Some doctors have been asked to find their own accommodation. Unfortunately, there is no special allowance for that,” he said.
ActionSA marched to Mpumalanga Health MEC Sasekani Manzini’s office last week with a memorandum demanding a response to the interns’ grievances within seven days.
The party threatened to get a declaratory order to force the department to pay for the accommodation and compensate them for costs incurred thus far.
Manzini’s spokesperson Sharon Nkosi said the department wasn’t aware of the matter.
“They should give us more details so that we can investigate,” she said, but did not respond when News24 forwarded the memorandum from ActionSA.
News24 article – Medical interns in Mpumalanga told to find own accommodation (Restricted access)
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