From the people who brought you the weekend

Today is the first day of a doctors’ strike in South Africa. Having not received a 50% (that’s right, fifty) pay raise from the government, they have taken to the streets in protest in several provinces here.

It blows my mind that doctors can go on strike; who’s taking care of patients?* Of course, it's not unheard-of: when the U.S. government shut down in the 90s, my physician uncle was working part-time at a VA hospital. If I recall correctly, he didn’t go to work at the VA during this time; at the very least, I know that he wasn’t paid during this time. It wasn't the same thing—certainly it came from a very different set of circumstances, but it's the only time I can recall doctors actively not working.

I just saw an intern (first-year doctor) interviewed on the news, and he explained how the current system made it difficult to do his job: "the conditions are terrible . . . patients are dying all around you. Last week there was no oxygen in the hospital . . . there was no water for two days." He also revealed his salary: 8,000 rand/month, or $12,000 a year. Pay increases as you progress through training, but not by much: a senior general surgeon with 15 years experience quotes his salary as $28,500.

There are two systems for health care in South Africa, one public and one private. The private system is similar in many respects to the U.S. system, with insurers (called, hilariously, “schemes”) paying for a portion of medical care. Most patients are in the public sector, however, which is notorious for overcrowding and poor conditions. Public physicians make far less than their private counterparts, and they work well beyond the 80-hour workweek that has been imposed on U.S. medical trainees.

Usually I stand with the workers—but these are doctors.

And usually I think doctors who complain about money are jerks—but that’s in America.

I know it’s more complicated than this, but South Africa would be wise to give the doctors what they’re looking for. It means standing with the patient, the 80% of South Africans whose already-precarious healthcare is at risk.

You can read more here, here, and here.


*Nurses, as always. They’re also bringing in private sector doctors for relief.