The Eastern Cape Health Department is under fire from unemployed health practitioners, who say it’s dragging its feet to fill critical vacancies in the department.
The healthcare professionals marched to the department’s headquarters in Bhisho, demanding permanent employment.
They included Pharmacists, Emergency workers and Community Healthcare workers.
They say they want government to come up with a clear and concrete plan to bring them into the healthcare system.
Pharmacist assistant Lelethu Betheni says they have a critical role to play in closing the gap between the private and the public healthcare systems.
“We see that our clinics are lacking, there are no pharmacy assistants, the government is using other people that are not qualified to do our job and it’s totally against the law. On top of that we have to pay the fees to the pharmacy council, how do we do that if we are unemployed,” adds Betheni.
