“I’m not used to sitting ... doing nothing,” she said. “The fact that there's a global pandemic and I'm just sitting at home doesn't go hand in hand with the Hippocratic oath that I took to always help people in need,” Cerfontyne added, referring to the 2,500-year-old pledge new doctors swear to uphold.
Nearly 200 doctors, 325 nurses and 200 other health workers are unemployed, according to Hire Our Medical Heroes, a campaign pressuring the government to take on more SA medical staff to tackle the pandemic.Budget constraints Alex Van Den Heever, an expert in the administration of public health at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, said budget constraints explain the anomaly. The government is trying to rein in its huge national wage bill, “so there will be an emphasis on freezing posts”, including medical ones.
“There's a mismatch,” he said. “The crisis picks up but there isn't enough flexibility in the budget system to release funds for sessional doctors.”
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