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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
23 November 2017
2018 Medical Intern Posts – SAMA and JUDASA call on Premiers and Finance Minister to address looming crisis
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has expressed concern over the lack of funded posts for 2018 affecting more than 280 final year medical students.
“The problem does not lie with the overall number of Health Professionals Council of SA (HPCSA) accredited Intern posts in South Africa but rather about the lack of funded posts for all potential 2018 Interns from the current pool of final year medical students. This year an exhaustive process led by the Junior Doctors Association of South Africa (JUDASA) in conjunction with the national Department of Health, has been underway to ensure a fair and transparent process to place students in Intern posts for the 2018 intake,” explains Dr Mzukisi Grootboom, Chairperson of SAMA.
Dr Grootboom says the reality is that the number of student doctors eligible for Internship in 2018 now exceeds the available pool of funded posts in the country.
“Accounting for South African citizens only, we are in need of more than 280 more posts that require funding to absorb all eligible candidates for 2018 medical Internship”.
Given the distribution of HPCSA accredited posts, only three provinces viz. Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, have capacity to fund more posts. The remaining provinces are near saturation with respect to their number of available HPCSA accredited and now funded posts.
“For this reason, SAMA and JUDASA call on Premiers’ Makhura (Gauteng), Zille (Western Cape) and Mchunu (KwaZulu-Natal) to urgently instruct their provincial fiscus to allow for the funding of more medical intern posts to cover the shortfall.
He explains that these provinces have the constitutional prerogative to disburse their provincial budgets in this manner. Invariably, additional funding may be required and thus the Minister of Finance, Mr Malusi Gigaba, and National Treasury, are also called upon to allocate the requisite funding to avoid the impending crisis of qualified medical students sitting at home without employment. This needs to be understood in the context that we must “remind the Premiers, and the Finance Minister, that Internship is not a ‘nice to have’ but a statutory obligation for a prospective doctor to fulfil in order to gain full registration as an independent practitioner. The government, both national and provincial, have an obligation to ensure that this statutory requirement is met,” concludes Dr Grootboom.
Notes to Editors
About SAMA
The South African Medical Association was formally constituted on 21 May 1998 as a unification of a variety of doctors’ groups that had represented a diversity of interests. SAMA is a non-statutory, professional association for public, and private sector medical practitioners. SAMA is a voluntary membership association, existing to serve the best interests and needs of its members in any and all healthcare related matters.
Contact: Head of PR & Communications
Dr Simonia Magardie
Email: simoniam@samedical.org
Spokesperson
Chairperson: SAMA
Dr Mzukisi Grootboom
Email: mzukisi@mweb.co.za
Spokesperson 2
Vice-Chairperson: SAMA
Prof Mark Sonderup
Email: msonderup@samedical.co.za
Spokesperson 3
JUDASA Secretary General
Dr Michael Van Niekerk
Email: michaelvanniek@hotmail.com
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