JOHANNESBURG – The South African Medical Association (Sama) says that should the Health Department fail to pay medical interns they will down tools.
In a statement, the department has committed to pay the salaries of interns and community service workers by next week.
This week the doctors were informed on Monday that they will not receive their January salaries due to a delay in processing the details of new employees.
In a statement, the department says that despite the delay in payment of salaries, it has made arrangements for additional payments for recently employed doctors whose details were processed late.
The department says PERSAL runs will now be paid next week.
The medical association has urged the department to honour its commitments, failing which doctors will not render services they are not paid for.
The association’s Eddie Agwenya says doctors will be forced to down tools.
“There’s a possibility of doctors no longer rendering the service which they’re not getting remunerated for.”
Doctors across the province’s public hospitals have been affected by the impasse.
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