Sunday Tribune reports that ten months after he was fired from his job, Ngwelezana Hospital’s head of surgery returned to work last week, but there was no place for him.  

Instead, Dr Maheshwar Naidoo’s position had already been filled by another specialist.  “The CEO was unavailable this week, and he was supposed to organise everything for my reinstatement.  The other staff said they couldn’t do anything until he was back,” Naidoo noted.  He was fired last year following a series of complaints against him.  He successfully appealed the ruling and was cleared of all 12 charges and instructed to return to work on 15 April.  In addition to full reinstatement with 10 months backpay, Naidoo was granted a further three months’ pay for unfair suspension.  However, returning to work was not a simple matter as Dr George Oosthuizen was permanently appointed to take over from Naidoo before the appeal was finalised.  Although he reported for work, Naidoo said he didn’t attend to any patients or perform any operations.  He commented as follows:  “I’m considering my options.  The first week back was very unpleasant.  They’ve (DoH) created a problem for themselves.  They messed up.”

• Read the full original of Wendy Jasson Da Costa’s report on this story at Sunday Tribune

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