Community Service Placements 2024

OBLIGATORY COMMUNITY SERVICE PLACEMENTS - 2024

To: National Department of Health (NDoH) / Internship and Community Service Programme (ICSP)

This letter is written on behalf of the final year interns of 2023 who are awaiting their obligatory community service placements for 2024.  

As of November 28, 23h00, we have not received our placements for 2024, with informal communications citing budget cuts as the likely cause. The last formal communication confirmed the extension in application closing date, as received on 20 October 2023. Since applications closed on 23 October 2023, we have received no official communication from the National Department of Health or ICSP.  

As stipulated by the NDoH and ICSP, the NDoH was mandated to release our placements by 30 November 2023 to facilitate enough time to relocate provinces. While we are able to apply to five facilities, there is no assurance of placement at one of these five facilities. Placement may mean having to move to a new province with only two days of relocation leave. This includes having relocation costs, which are not provided, finding housing, and accommodating other family commitments that we all have. We are not merely a number on a page, but working professionals with families and personal commitments outside of our jobs.The delays in this process have left our year group feeling hopeless and frustrated with no assurance about our employment for 2024. Community service is mandatory for us to complete in order to practice medicine in South Africa, meaning that without allocated posts we are unable to work as medical doctors despite seven/eight years of studying and training. 

Informal communication from various role players has been shared among us without commitment to when the placements will be released. As we are contracted to work at our current facility until 31 December 2023 and with our new contracts are expected to start 01 January 2024, we are becoming increasingly alarmed at the lack of commitment from the NDoH and ICSP to listen to, and, address our concerns.  

We all entered this profession for different reasons, but at the root of it, we want to help people. More specifically South African people. We have been working tirelessly for two years, in conditions that are often arduous and detrimental to our own mental and physical health, but we do it because we care. And despite all of this, we have been given no assurance of our employment next year with no communication and no transparency as to what is currently delaying the placements.  

The need to work outside of South Africa has become a harsh reality that many of us have considered due to this, which is heartbreaking as South Africa truly cannot afford to lose more skilled professionals, especially in the healthcare field.  

The updated budgets were published in September 2023, following which certain community service posts were cut or reduced citing budget cuts as the cause. This happened prior to the deadline for applications, however, this is the reason being provided via informal communication lines as to the delay. Why was this issue not foreseen and addressed prior to applications closing? There are concerning implications for the greater impact of these budget cuts on service delivery with an already crippled healthcare system. 

We, along with all healthcare workers, are being expected to deliver more with less support.  Should more community service posts be cut, already overburdened staff and service points will simply suffer more and as a result, so will the South African people.  

We plead with the NDoH and ICSP to expedite the process and to release placements by 30 November 2023 as previously mandated by NDoH and ICSP so that we are allocated enough time to make the necessary moving arrangements in order to start work 01 January 2024.  

We also ask that open communication channels are implemented as well as full transparency into the process and predicted delays going forward, including a formal statement from the NDoH and ICSP with an updated timeline for the placement process.

In the meantime, we will continue to fulfill our duties and tender our services to the South African people as we have for the past two years. This letter should in no way be construed as a threat to strike or delay service delivery. This is simple a plea from the doctors below, to respond to the above concerns. 

Regards

Medical Interns 2023 

Medical Interns 2023    Contact the author of the petition