'We are not important': Unplaced junior doctors say dept has failed them

DURBAN - Junior doctors who were not placed by the Department of Health despite years of complaints about staff shortages, said the department failed to get a grip on the situation.

Hundreds of unemployed doctors in KwaZulu-Natal handed over a memorandum of demands to department officials in Pietermaritzburg on Monday.

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The march comes as South Africa is facing a critical shortage of qualified doctors.

Thirty-year-old Dumisani Shozi said the national Department of Health had failed not only healthcare professionals but the most vulnerable people in South Africa.

"This critical shortage has led us to believe that we are not important, and we are not prioritised by our government, which then makes it possible to consider other options, like moving to other countries or moving into private healthcare, of which does not serve the majority of South Africans, [and] does not serve the rural and indigenous people of our country."

He said the Department of Health’s excuse that qualified doctors did not want to be placed in rural areas held no weight, as many doctors served their community service in the most impoverished areas.