The Gauteng branch of the Democratic Nursing Organization of South Africa (Denosa) has taken aim at physicians who keep taking advantage of the public healthcare system by billing for and receiving payment for hours that they never actually spend in hospitals.
Simphiwe Gada, the provincial chairwoman of Gauteng Denosa, informed reporters in Johannesburg on Sunday that physicians occasionally miss work at hospitals when they are expected to be working extra, but they are still compensated for it.
Gada added that these physicians mistreat their patients and should be retrained in the Batho Pele political philosophy.
“On the attitude of doctors, we want to advise Samatu (South African Medical Association Trade Union) to not play to the gallery by condemning all hard-working health workers and managers but rather to invest on training their members, which are the doctors, on ethics and also on the attitude that they display and how they treat our patients. They should treat our patients with dignity.
As an example, Gada said the recently trending case of Tom London, the former broadcaster who was a patient at Helen Joseph Hospital complained vigorously on the attitude of doctors within the facility.
“Tom London was on record, clear, saying he never received bad treatment from nurses but he noted the bad attitude from the doctors. We think that Samatu must concentrate on that and employ the same energy they are employing in calling for the department of health to be overhauled in terms of managers.
“They (Samatu) should also fix the attitude that their members have. They must also talk to the theft that happens in terms of commuted overtime where people who are supposed to be on duty, especially doctors who must work overtime, you find that they split their shifts.
“If they are supposed to work on a weekend, one will work on Saturday and the other will work on Sunday. When they claim, they claim as if they were all present on both days. These are things that talk to ethics,” he said.
Gada said “theft and corruption comes in many forms in many forms” and currently, the doctors are getting away with murder.
“They are taking the time that they should be treating South Africans and using it to gain money (at private health facilities),” he said.
