Unpaid doctors, food shortages rock Gauteng public hospitals

After putting in an exhausting month’s work saving lives and clocking up 80 hours of overtime, a doctor at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in Soweto was left with only an empty bank account to show for it.

To add insult to injury, she then had to prove she was not a “ghost worker”.

The doctor is among many medics struggling to survive after the Gauteng health department’s failure to pay their salaries.

Some haven’t been paid for three months.

On Saturday, the department gave a long list of reasons for the salary debacle, warning that some doctors may not receive their May salaries either.

When the Baragwanath doctor asked why she had not received her April salary, she was told by the hospital’s human resources department that she needed to prove she was not a “ghost employee”.

“Why did the department not notify me before freezing my salary?” she asked. Now, two weeks into the new month, she’s still in the dark about when or if her outstanding salary will be paid.

While it is unclear how many doctors have been affected by the crisis, some specialists — the backbone of the public health system — have not been paid for their overtime.

Last week, doctors at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa held a two-day protest over nonpayment of salaries. Some have not received pay for two months.

While there appears to be no pattern to the nonpayment, the issue is believed to have affected most hospitals across the province.

However, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital, Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital and Baragwanath are believed to be the ones worst affected, along with several clinics in the Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni metros.

The salary crisis is the latest in a string of controversies plaguing the dysfunctional

Gauteng health department.

The Baragwanath doctor, who has worked for the department for more than 10 years, spoke on condition of anonymity and said she was “You struggling have to to work, make but ends you meet.’ don t have money for petrol, and yet you have to make it to work despite the difficulties. We just feel used by the government.”

She is building a home and has had to pause construction while she works out how to make ends meet. She applied for a short-term bank loan, but it was declined because her April salary had not been paid.

“I’ve already sent three months of bank statements, the roster showing the patients I have seen, and the register I sign on a daily basis to prove to my own employer I am not a ghost. But we are already deep into May and coming to work is now a mission,” she said.

The department’s spokesperson, Motalatale Modiba, initially said the nonpayment of salaries affected just two hospitals: Charlotte Maxeke and George Mukhari. The problems were the result of “administrative and financial challenges”, he said.

However, Modiba said yesterday the problem was “confined to a handful of facilities owing to a number of factors, such as appointments made without the correct process [having been] followed”.

In other cases “there [had] been late submission of applications [for overtime], and submissions that did not comply with the requirements, which had to be corrected”.

Modiba said some of the affected doctors might not receive their May salaries.

“Other submissions were only submitted by candidates as late as May 7 and 8, which means they might not meet the next payment run. This was explained to them by their respective facility [managers],” he said.

Corrected submissions had since been captured, and mandates had been sent to e-Government for processing, with the next payment run set for this week.

Modiba said there were also allegations some supervisors had deliberately withheld application forms and submitted them late.

“[We] don’t take these allegations lightly, and they will be investigated to hold those responsible accountable,” he said.

Moses Mphahlele, an official at the National Union of Public Service and Allied workers in the City of Johannesburg, who has been assisting the unpaid doctors, accused the department of “arrogance”.

“In terms of the agreed policy, they cannot just freeze someone’s salary without notifying that person first about not having verified that person,” Mphahlele said.

Doctors at Charlotte Maxeke had gone unpaid owing to poor management of the renewal of expiring contracts for existing employees or problems getting new employees loaded onto the system. Resolving the issues sometimes took more than two months — while employees were left unpaid.

The Sunday Times spoke to six doctors, including a young student doctor at Charlotte Maxeke, who haven’t been paid for three months. The student said she had been relying on savings, now depleted, to survive.

Another Soweto-based doctor did not know how she would make it to work tomorrow, as she had run out of funds.

“It doesn’t make sense why I was not paid, as I am on the roster and there’s a record of my having seen patients. Now I don’t have petrol money to go to work,” the Soweto doctor said.

Meanwhile, a doctor in a paediatric unit said the food served to patients for the past two weeks consisted of instant soup and bread or pap, which did not meet the dietary requirements of some patients. They had been forced to use their own money to buy food for the patients.

Dr Aslam Dasoo, a convener of the Progressive Health Forum, a health care advocacy network, warned the problem was being experienced across the entire Gauteng.

“Doctors are treated worse than cleaners, despite their being the most professional cohort in the public sector,” Dasoo said.

When the Sunday Times visited Charlotte Maxeke this week, some patients said they were bringing their own food with them, or buying it from vending machines, mobile kitchens or shops.

Thabo Hadebe, 37, who has been hospitalised for two months said the last two weeks had been difficult.

“Every morning they have been giving us porridge with no sugar,” he said. Hadebe said lunch was sometimes just a slice of bread with cheese, while in the evening they would sometimes get pap and milk.

Siyabonga Ntombela, a patient admitted last week, said the food was so bad he refused to eat it. “I buy snacks from the vending machines or eat what my family brings.” A female patient said the food included “inedible options such as macaroni with dry fish cakes”.

Modiba admitted there were food supply problems at Charlotte Maxeke. They were caused by compliance issues and the hospital got “contingency orders for in-house cooking”.