The Citizen reports that hundreds of graduates are sitting at home after the Department of Health (DOH) bungled their placement into public health facilities to do community service and internships.  

Failure to complete a year of community service bars healthcare workers from practicing, essentially meaning they would be unable to work in the medical field.  In December, the department issued a statement saying that 9,797 health professionals were allocated for community service and internship positions, of which 1,465 were community service medical practitioners.  According to the DOH spokesperson Popo Maja, the starting dates for the young graduates would be between 2 and 15 January, based on the date when the current incumbents exited the posts.  However a young doctor said he was initially allocated to a municipality, but was told that the specific post would be available soon.  “That was in the middle of December and up until today [8 January] there is still no post.  I have appealed my placement and my appeal was successful but the e-mail I received stated that there were no resources to give me a post.”.  According to posts on the Junior Doctors Association of SA (Judasa) telegram chat group, several doctors face similar problems.  They complain that the placement algorithm on the department’s website, used to assign them to posts, was flawed, as several were placed in facilities to which they had not applied.

• Read the original report by Gcina Ntsaluba in full at The Citizen

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