ActionSA Applauds Dept of Health on Responding to Our #HireOurMedicalHeroes Campaign
20 January 2021
ActionSA is delighted by news that the Department of Health has reached out to the South African Medical Association (SAMA), following our #HireOurMedicalHeroes campaign, and sought the lists of unemployed healthcare professionals to hire them.
Yesterday SAMA informed ActionSA of the development that the Department of Health has reached out to access our database, now standing at over 720 unemployed medical professionals, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and others, so that they can be urgently employed.
ActionSA launched this campaign believing it was a tragedy that unemployed South African medical professionals sit at home unemployed while our frontline medical personnel are desperate for reinforcement.
Frontline medical personnel in South Africa are exhausted, traumatised and devastated by the deaths of 436 deaths and 43 000 infections of their colleagues and co-workers. This takes place at a time where South Africans are dying in the corridors of hospitals due to insufficient medical personnel, among other reasons.
The continued unemployment of South African doctors and nurses was also unacceptable because of the deployment of 217 Cuban doctors deployed at a cost of over R400 million.
On many occasions ActionSA is rightly critical of our government. This situation should never have developed to the point that it did where we are losing the battle to a pandemic while our medical personnel sit at home unemployed. However, we will give credit where it is due, and our Health Department deserves praise for their response to this campaign.
ActionSA’s only interest in this campaign has been the employment of these unemployed South African healthcare professionals. In this regard SAMA, and specifically the leadership of its Chairperson, Dr Angelique Coetzee, should be praised for their uncompromising and brave work in representing medical personnel in South Africa.
We call upon the Department of Health to hire these medical professionals on a full-time basis and not to take any shortcuts in the important work of putting these professionals to work in saving the lives of South Africans and improving the standard of public healthcare.
We will supply the database of the more than 720 unemployed medical professionals this afternoon to SAMA so that it can be provided to the Department of Health.
We will make contact with those on our database so that we can continuously track their employment status in the coming days and weeks. Most importantly, we will call for more unemployed medical hereoes to come forward to join #HireOurMedicalHeroes by visiting www.hiremedicalheroes.co.za
The employment of these unemployed South African medical professionals is a proud moment for ActionSA, and one which we will continue through our ongoing work to ensure that every chance is given to sick South Africans to receive the treatment they need.
Issued by Herman Mashaba, ActionSA President, 20 January 2021
