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NO DOCTORS AFTER HOURS IN GOVT HOSPITALS FROM TODAY

01/07/2024 08:33:00 Stanley Khumalo and Nonduduzo Kunene

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MBABANE – Beginning from today, government doctors will not attend to anyone who will fall sick after their knock-off time.

This was confirmed by the On-Call Committee, following that the healthcare professionals have still not received their on-call and standby allowances. The Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health, Khanya Mabuza, last week held a meeting with the healthcare professionals. Mabuza promised that the doctors would receive their monies before June 30, 2024.
The payment of on-call and standby allowances for the period of October 2023 to March 2024 was not included in their June 2024 monthly salaries, as they had expected.

Following the omission of their on-call and standby allowances, the healthcare professionals took a resolution to down tools with effect from today and will not attend to all patients who will require emergency services, until they are paid their dues in full. There are over 300 on-call and standby medical personnel working in the country’s major hospitals, which are Mbabane Government Hospital, Hlatikhulu Government Hospital, Mankayane Government Hospital and Pigg’s Peak Government Hospital. Other healthcare workers who will not be working on weekends as well as at night, are those who are based at Mkhuzweni, Dvokolwako and Matsanjeni health centres.

The on-call medical staff consists of doctors, theatre nurses, laboratory, pharmacy, blood bank and biomed, among others. Questioned by this reporter on whether they had received their allowances, the On-Call Committee members stated that they had not received their payments. The members said they were not shifting from the contents of their notification, which was written to the PS early last month.

The committee representing the healthcare professionals said: “As instructed by all medical personnel participating in on-call and standby duties hereby relay that payment of the on-call and standby allowances for the said period is still expected to be paid with the June 2024 monthly salary. Failure to honour the above will force all medical personnel to immediately cease all on-call and standby duties in all affected facilities on July 1, 2024.”

Direction

They stated that they would have a clear direction from this evening. The medical personnel said they did not accept the omission of the on-call and standby allowances. The healthcare practitioners said all other alternative payment arrangements explored in the past attracted higher taxation rates, which financially prejudiced them significantly. They said staggered payments, omission of officers or other forms of delay, would force them to stop working until all officers are paid in full. The resolution by the medical personnel is against the backdrop of members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommending that the Ministry of Health should remove the on-call allowances budget and divert it to the procurement of drugs.
Making reference to the Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital, PAC Vice Chairperson Manzi Zwane submitted that it was disheartening that government was paying so much to doctors for the on-call allowances, while patients were not attended to when the doctors had knocked off.

The legislators added that there was no sense of urgency at the hospitals, especially after 7pm, when the doctors had knocked off. This, he said, did not make sense to have on-call allowances budget when the service was not rendered. “Govemment is paying these people, but we are not getting the service. EmaSwati are getting substandard health attention at the hospital, but a budget is reserved by government to pay the on-call allowances. The ministry should cancel the budget for on-call allowances and divert same to the procurement of more drugs,” he said.

In response, the doctors said they did not take seriously the statement made by the PAC and were not troubled by it. They said they were not going to entertain the statement because there was nothing formal the ministry had said to them. This is not the first time the medical staff issues threats to down tools over their on-call and standby allowances. In December 2023, the medical personnel said they would not be available to be on-call and on standby, meaning they would work during normal working hours. They argued that claims for the allowances were submitted about three months ago, but were still being processed by government, something that the health professionals explained as a deliberate move to frustrate them. Reached for comment, the PS stated that he was busy in a meeting and would revert to this reporter.