'No deals’ for unlucky few strikers – HPCSA

Abstract

Any political bargains struck before this August’s preliminary enquiry into the professional conduct of 256 KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) public sector doctor strikers will not stop proceedings against them. The ‘no bargains’ assertion was made by the Health Professions Council of South Africa’s (HPCSA’s) legal manager, advocate Tshepo Boikanyo, last month when Izindaba asked about the implications of extensive political manoeuvering. The 256 are among thousands of public sector doctors who downed tools across the nation last April in protest at what they saw as woefully inadequate Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) pay hikes offered by government. A political ‘deal’ would have mitigated the potential fall-out among public sector doctors who have expressed strong solidarity around difficult working conditions, dysfunctional administrations and relatively low professional salaries. A punitive outcome at an HPCSA hearing could prove a watershed event in public health care delivery as disgruntled doctors, already dissatisfied with OSD career path-related salary hikes, leave in eve-growing numbers.