BAD news for our young doctors and other health practitioners. It seems that the government can prevent them from opening or even working in private practices wherever they choose.
President Jacob Zuma had slyly noted our preoccupation with this fuss about Lindiwe Mazibuko throwing in the towel as the DA's parliamentary leader to further her studies abroad and quietly signed into law sections of the National Health Act that now compel medical practitioners to apply to the Department of Health for "a certificate of need" should they wish to work in the suburb of their choice.
The certificate, according to news reports, will be compulsory from April 2016 and healthcare workers could face up to five years in prison or a fine if they run a private practice without it.
The laws have, of course, raised the hackles of certain sections of the medical profession who see it as yet another example of a ham-fisted government bothering the citizenry. As Chris Archer, spokesman for the SA Private Practitioners' Forum, told The Times last week: "It's an experiment in social engineering. It is destined to fail. Doctors should be able to work and live where they choose."
Here at the Mahogany Ridge, however, we realise the act is intended to ensure an "equitable spread" of doctors and other practitioners around the country, and there is obviously a desperate need to provide services in areas where they were lacking.
There are probably not many private dental practices, for example, in Khayelitsha - but the southern suburbs are choked with them. The same goes for botox clinics. Our upmarket shopping malls are filled with frozen-faced women from enormous homes in the leafier areas. No such facilities exist where their domestic workers live. Surely the women of Nyanga and Masiphumelele would also want some of that Zille chiller glamour in their lives?