SAMSA comments on suspension of two doctors at Evander hospital

Lusanda Bill

20 July 2015

The South African Medical Association Trade Union in Mpumalanga has raised concern regarding the support the two suspended Evander hospital doctors are receiving. 

The pair is alleged to have disregarded the protocols and clinical guidelines during the examination of a teen pregnant mother at the hospital a week ago.

SAMA’s Mark Sonderup said the concern we have is that any issues around alleged professional misconduct by a doctor, should really be handled through the relevant regulative body and the committee of their peers.

Sonderup said “I think it is a very dangerous precedent where Politicians, Ministers or Director General get involved in misconduct issues and make claims of professional misconduct without knowing the facts of the case. The actual facts of the case do not seem to be accurately represented as medium by the Minister himself 

Meanwhile Sonderup says there seems to be a trend developing where doctors are being made scapegoats for the public healthcare system.  Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has ordered a probe into the conduct of the two Mpumalanga doctors to determine the circumstances surrounding the death of the teenage mother.

Sonderup said, doctors are being made scapegoats for the Public Health Care system that, if not collapsing, is under extreme pressure, yet the very same people who are the custodians of that system such as the Politicians and MEC’s and various officials concerned, in fact, they are nowhere to be found when it comes to allegations of misconduct.

This is something that we are extremely concerned about, we felt it is necessary to express our opinion very clear, Sonderup concluded.