Mpilo Central Hospital, the second largest referral centre in the country is facing a serious shortage of junior medical staff after the Ministry of Health and Child Care failed to deploy the expected number of doctors.
Ordinarily, the Ministry of Health at the beginning of the year conveniently undertook to deploy only eleven (11) medical doctors at the health institution instead of the expected yearly figure of fifty (50).
A spokesperson for JRMOs, DrMthabisi Bhebhe said it is illogical that such a large hospital has received fewer junior doctors this year compared to other central hospitals.
“We do not want to believe that this was a calculated manoeuvre made to and marginalize innocent citizens in this part of the country. We are profoundly sad that because of this poor administrative work by the Ministry of health, there has not been any further deployment of doctors despite the fact that there are sixty or more juniors doctors who still await deployment,” said Bhebhe.
“We are reliably informed that there has been a deliberate move to delay the deployment until late August after patients have suffered well enough,” added Bhebhe.
In the past months, Mpilo doctors have sacrificed well beyond their capability and cannot continue. This shortage has resulted in the current crop of junior doctors working round the clock every day.
This comes in the midst of deplorable working conditions at the institution and failure of the administration to implement flexible working hours as directed by the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
