Africa-Press – Namibia. OCCUPATIONAL therapy (OT) graduates say the health ministry is delaying the commencement of internships, which were due to start earlier this year.
A group of nine OT graduates say they are still waiting to start internships with the health ministry.
In a letter sent to the health ministry, the graduates say they are all registered with the Health Professions Councils of Namibia (HPCNA) as OT interns, however, since their registration, they have not received any positive response on an indication of when they can commence with the internships.
“As we are registered as OT interns and can only be employed as such, we are unable to obtain gainful employment within the field of study in which we have graduated,” the letter reads.
The graduates say they understand that the internship process is beneficial to interns and the beginning of their work as qualified therapists within the various OT fields.
“We believe that the excessive waiting period of six months is infringing on our human right to work,” the letter reads.
The graduates have been surviving on their own funds, without the support of the subsidy paid to OT interns, which many were relying on.
“We hereby request that the Ministry of Health and Social Services either allow us to start working as interns by 10 July, or for the the HPCNA to reinstate and allow us to write the examination, within this same period and then to allow us to start working thereafter,” said the letter.
Minister of health and social services Kalumbi Shangula on 30 June 2022 said in parliament that it should be noted that the issuing of registration certificates takes some time to be processed on the system at HPCNA. This could be due to workload or other administrative processes.
“It should be noted that the health ministry has never had an internships training for OT cadres before. This is the first time that the ministry is implementing internship of such a cadre,” Shangula said.
He said the OT internship programme was expected to start on 1 July.
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