NEWS: SA doctors working in dangerous conditions: SAMA

The South African Medical Association says South African doctors are working in increasingly dangerous conditions. The organisation says apart from  vulnerability through needle pricks to diseases such as HIV/Aids, doctors have been killed, raped and robbed on duty.

SAMA spokesperson, Doctor Phophi Ramathuba, says doctors and nurses have in the past been shot and stabbed within the hospital premises.

“All these reports portray the profession as a dangerous profession to choose today. We have got to be provided with equipment that is up to standard. We must be allowed as end-users to be the ones to define the specifications of our needles, our scissors, or our theatre equipment, so that chances of us pricking ourselves are very slim, so that we do not have to stay at home.”

Meanwhile, escalating healthcare costs, matched by the rising costs of monthly medical aid contributions are making it harder for medical aid members to make ends meet. Bridging the gap between the two is just one of the talking points on the agenda at the upcoming Board of Healthcare Funders conference in Durban.

The organisation represents the majority of medical schemes throughout South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho.

The Board of Healthcare Funders says there are some 8,5 million South Africans that belong to a medical aid scheme - a mere fraction of some 54 million South Africans. But the organisation says these medical aid members are battling rising monthly contributions that is weighing heavily against the rising cost of medical care.

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International Correspondent Scott Congdon can be reached at:
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