DA forced to submit PAIA for KZN DoH Medical Personnel Volunteer Policy
23 March 2021
The Democratic Alliance (DA) has submitted a Public Access to Information Act (PAIA) application (view here) to KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Health (DoH) in a bid to obtain its newly drafted medical volunteer policy.
The move comes as numerous medical doctors and nurses – who are not currently within the province’s healthcare system – wait to assist colleagues struggling under the load of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In April 2020, KZN Health MEC, Nomagugu Simelane-Zulu, put out a call for medical volunteers, particularly doctors, to assist the Department during the pandemic. Many doctors, including myself, submitted our names. However, to date, we have received no feedback from the DoH regarding placement.
The DA’s continuous follow-up’s regarding this matter with KZN Health Head of Department (HOD), Dr Sandile Tshabalala, finally resulted in his admission to the province’s Health portfolio committee, on 26 January, that the DoH currently has no Human Resources policy when it comes to medical volunteers and that it was actually dismantled many years ago.