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City Press reports that the Gauteng Department of Health has reduced overtime budgets this year, but the decision is likely to have a significant impact on service delivery in hospitals, particularly on weekends and public holidays.
A frustrated doctor at Baragwanath Hospital commented that reduced staffing with no overtime could see hospitals struggle to maintain adequate staffing levels in the next few months, subsequently leading to reduced services or closures of certain departments. The medical practitioner said that the new system was already having a negative effect on hospitals, including Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg, and pointed out that most public hospitals relied on overtime doctors to keep services afloat on busy days. According to the doctor, the hospital casualty wards get flooded by emergency patients and death-threatening cases that might face the unavailability of specialised doctors, as hospitals were forced to work on skeleton staff. She claimed some lives could have been saved if the hospital had a full team of doctors in every department. Gauteng health spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said in response that the department was working on addressing the issues affecting shortages in the current financial year. He said the shortages had been affected by terminations of old contracts and new appointments of doctors who were expected to start new contracts by April.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Promise Marupeng at City Press (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page