#Coronavirus: DA fights for registration of additional healthcare workers

Issued by Mariette Pittaway MPL – Whip of the Official Opposition in the Free State Legislature
12 Jan 2021 in Press Statements

Note to Editors: Please find the attached soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Mariette Pittaway MPL, Whip of the Official Opposition in the Free State Legislature.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has, on the request of several healthcare workers, written to the MEC for Health in the Free State, Montseng Tsiu, requesting that a group of qualified young community service doctors and interns who have not yet been registered by the Health Professionals Council of South Africa (HPCSA) be registered as a matter of urgency, to enable them to assist with Covid-19 relief in the province.

The DA wants to see all our unemployed doctors, nurses or interns who are able and willing to assist in the pandemic, be able to do so.

As the Free State is losing the battle against Covid-19 due to our provincial government’s failure to prepare for the pandemic, we cannot afford to have qualified doctors, nurses and medical interns sit at home and be unemployed.

The second wave currently experienced in the Free State calls on all of us, including the provincial government, to be proactive in implementing measures to curb the spread of transmission.

As hospitals continue to be overwhelmed with patients and oxygen supplies running low, our healthcare facilities require all the help they can get. We cannot afford for institutional red tape to be the cause of our diminished healthcare capacity in the Free State.

Our young healthcare professionals are ready to work, to help and play a part in saving the lives of our people in the province. They want to assist the sick and ease the load that this pandemic has placed on our already crippled healthcare system.

The DA calls upon any healthcare professionals who are experiencing similar difficulties to let their voices be heard and approach us for assistance. The DA shall continue to mobilise the necessary stakeholders in order to bring the pandemic to its knees.