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By Nokuphila Haji | 2024-07-02
DESPITE that government has asked doctors to allow them at least two more days to process on-call allowances, they have vowed not to work beyond their normal working hours.
The ministry of health and the doctors yesterday had a meeting to discuss the issue of the payment of on-call allowances, which took over six hours.
Doctors had previously undertaken to abandon overtime and on-call duty with effect from yesterday, promising to only work their normal hours.
Their issue is that government had reportedly failed to pay them their allowances.
During the meeting, this newspaper understands that government pleaded with the doctors to allow them until tomorrow to process their payments.
Government is said to have further asked the doctors to resume on-call duty while their allowances were processed.
“There is a stalemate. Doctors flatly refused the offer on the table, saying they want their money first before resuming on-calls,” a source told this newspaper. The ministry met with the on-call doctors committee which represented the over 300 doctors owed overtime allowances for the period between October 2023 to March.
The allowances were supposed to be included in their June salaries.
The public health facilities that were anticipated to suffer from the stand-off included Mbabane Government Hospital, Hlatikhulu Government Hospital, Mankayane Government Hospital, Pigg’s Peak Government Hospital, Mkhuzweni health centre, Dvokolwako health centre and Matsanjeni health centre.
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health Khanya Mabuza told this newspaper that they had discussed the issue and further asked the doctors to continue working.
However, he said the ministry was not sure if the doctors would report to work or not, adding that they would be having another meeting today. Mabuza said the ministry discovered that there were some doctors who were not included on the list of those to be paid the on-call allowance, thus the delay in payment of same.
He said they had to fix the issue by capturing all the doctors so that they could be paid at once as per the doctors’ orders.
“There is money to pay the doctors, it is just that we had not captured everyone into the system, while the doctors want to be paid all at once,” he said.
The PS, however could not quantify the amount to be paid to all the doctors.
Meanwhile, On-call Doctors Committee Vice Chairperson Dr Zabenguni Mkhatjwa said they would continue with their resolution of not reporting to work after working hours until they were paid.
Mkhatjwa confirmed that the meeting did not yield any positive results.
She said the ministry asked for an extension, promising to pay them by the end of day tomorrow. She said they no longer trusted the ministry, thus their decision of not reporting to work after hours. “The ministry promised to pay us on June 30 in our last meeting, they have asked us to work tonight with the promise that we will get paid tomorrow, which is something that we will not do because we no longer trust them,” she said.
Mkhatjwa said there were no doctors in public facilities as of 5pm yesterday, adding that there were 60 doctors currently employed at the Mbabane government hospital.
“Our normal schedule starts from 0800 hours to 1700 hours, then on call starts from 1700 hours to 0800 hours. This means that there will be no doctors for on-calls unless we get paid,” she said.
Mkhatjwa said it would be disastrous if the ministry did not sort out the stalemate.
When follow-ups were made to the doctor after 1700 hours, she said nothing had come through their accounts as yet. Mkhatjwa said such was unfortunate as at night they attended to emergencies not just any illness. This included cases of people who were involved in accidents who needed urgent attention.
“Intern doctors will also not work because they have to work under the supervision of a senior,” she said.
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