10 unpaid interns suffer at Baragwanath Hospital

7 March 2022

It is truly deplorable that 10 intern doctors at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital are suffering as they have not been paid this year.

They do invaluable work in 12-hour shifts, but things are getting desperate as some of them are going hungry and don’t have money for transport.

Senior doctors at the hospital have now stepped in to help them from their own pockets.

The Gauteng Health Department claims that they were given more interns than expected, but this is a poor excuse for not making timely payment arrangements.

How can it be that there is always a non-payment issue at the beginning of each new year?

This includes doctors who were not paid their excess overtime in January.

Meanwhile, the Department paid R30 million for Cuban doctors last year, and still employs 14 of them instead of unemployed local doctors.

Furthermore, only 22% of health suppliers are paid within the required 30 days.

The Democratic Alliance will continue to pressure Gauteng Premier David Makhura to fix this department which is plagued by scandal and disaster.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health, 7 March 2022