Africa-Press – Eswatini. Emaswati intern medical doctors complain that they are treated as cheap labour in the country. This grievance was communicated by some of the intern doctors, who were recently recalled by government to continue their mandatory internship programme that was suspended back in 2020 and 2021.
The internship is a prerequisite in practicing medicine in order for the doctors to be granted a licence by the Eswatini Medical and Dental Council (EMDC), which would then enable them to practice medicine within the jurisdiction of the country.
The doctors have previously raised concerns that their career growth was threatened, after being off work for almost three years.
About 70 intern doctors, 30 of whom were recalled in October while about 40 started in November 2023, are currently on the internship programme, and have been placed in different hospitals and clinics around the country.
Most of these doctors were trained in medical schools in Russia, Cuba, South Africa and Taiwan, while a few are from universities in Ukraine, China, Zambia and Turkey.
The resumption of the programme was preceded by a hiatus that was initiated by government following complaints among the doctors about the disparity in their stipends. The doctors said all along government had been paying them E22 000 monthly for the two-year internship programme.
However, government is said to have cut the salaries to E8 000, which sparked the furore among the doctors.
The doctors who earned the E22 000 were those who had been trained in countries other than Taiwan. Those trained in Taiwan received E10 000 stipends from the Republic.
Affected
About 17 intern doctors, who were the first group to be affected by the drastic decrease of earnings, took government to court where their matter was further referred to the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission (CMAC), which later ruled in their favour.
CMAC ordered government to restore their remuneration to the former scale of E22 000.
However, instead of adhering to the order, government decided to suspend the programme.
At the time, the ministry of health disclosed that there was a restructuring of the programme so as to harmonise how it was run and also to supposedly correct the disparities in order to ensure its smooth running.
The aggrieved doctors explained that although this was an internship, they were actually qualified medical doctors as they had graduated from the various universities across the world.
“A medical intern doctor is a graduate doctor from a recognised medical school. Depending on the country of practice, the first two years of employment is regarded as medical internship period,” explained some of the doctors.
The doctors said in as much as they were relieved that the programme had resumed, they were still unhappy with the E12 800 that government had resolved to pay them after restructuring the programme. They expressed that they had worked hard for six to seven years in medical school only to be paid peanuts.
“Stipends are paid at a shameful scale, which is half of the previous scale of E22 200.
“Unfortunately, government threatened the interns and made them to sign agreements before resumption of the programme that they are not supposed to strike and demand more,” alleged the doctors.
Paid
In addition, the doctors said they also worked over 108 hours overtime, like the rest of the doctors in the country, but they (interns) were not paid for these extra hours. Furthermore, they complained that above being paid so little, accommodation was also no longer provided like it had been the case with the previous groups.
“We’re being cheated on all fronts. After graduating from tertiary, nurses’ start getting their actual pay, but it’s different with medical graduates. Previously, all doctors were paid their full salary after graduation.
“The next generation of Eswatini doctors might not even get the stipend during this period of career transition,” lamented the aggrieved doctors.
Ministry of Health Principal Secretary, Khanya Mabuza, requested to investigate the matter before responding.
The ministry, after the programme was suspended in 2022, explained that this was necessitated by the doctors winning their case with CMAC as government would have incurred more loses through lawsuits.
Source: observer
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