Cancer Alliance says there are radiation oncology staff shortages in Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. Radiation therapy graduates GroundUp spoke to said they had applied to the hospital but had not been placed.
- For six months now a number of radiation therapy graduates have not been placed in hospitals by the Department of Health.
- Graduates are required by law to complete the department’s Internship and Community Service Programme in order to practise.
- This comes at a time when there are reports of radiation oncology staff shortages in Gauteng hospitals.
- The Gauteng health department did not answer GroundUp’s questions.
A number of radiation therapy graduates, who must by law complete the Department of Health’s Internship and Community Service Programme in order to practise medicine, say they have been waiting for nearly six months to be placed in hospitals.
They have finished their four-year studies and now need to complete a year-long internship, referred to as Comserve, in order to register and practice as medical professionals. Their primary role is to administer radiation treatment to patients with cancer.
The community service programme is administered by the National Department of Health.
“We are left in limbo, not sure when we will receive a post,” a graduate from the Western Cape, who wished to be anonymous, told GroundUp. He said that they’ve been told since the beginning of the year by Comserve officials that they are engaging with provinces to secure them placements.
He shared correspondence that said he was not yet allocated a position “due to the unavailability of funded posts”.
He said that it was “frustrating” that they are required by law to do Comserve yet the department cannot find them posts.
“We are all stressed out … We still have bills to pay from university. We are squatting with our parents. We were promised we were going to have a job after studying and now we can’t apply for other jobs. Our hands are cut off. We can’t do anything,” he said.
He said he knew of about nine other radiation therapists also waiting for placements.
Another graduate, from KwaZulu-Natal, said the lack of placement risked creating a backlog when next year’s graduates need to do Comserve.
“At the end of the day, our cancer patients are going to suffer … They need us and we have trained specifically to help them,” she said.
The failure to place graduates is happening despite staff shortages in radiation oncology departments in Gauteng.
On 30 April activists from SECTION27, Cancer Alliance and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) as well as cancer patients marched to the offices of the Gauteng department of health demanding that millions of rands set aside for radiation treatment be used.
In an open letter addressed to health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, the organisations provided a backlog list of about 3,000 patients awaiting radiation oncology treatment.
Salomé Meyer of the Cancer Alliance says there are radiation oncology staff shortages in Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital and Steve Biko Academic Hospital.
Both graduates GroundUp spoke to had applied to Charlotte Maxeke for their Comserve year.
In December 2023, the national department stated that nearly 10,400 Comserve applications were received. Of these just shy of 9,400 applicants “were successfully placed, and this includes medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals at health facilities throughout the country”.
National Department of Health spokesperson Foster Mohale told GroundUp, “We only know those who were placed. We can’t tell those who were not placed because we are not sure of their career plans.”
Asked about staff shortages, Mohale said, the department “prioritises all critical posts using limited budget”.
The Gauteng Department of Health did not respond to our questions about radiology therapist Comserve placements and staff shortages in its hospitals, despite committing to do so and repeated follow-ups.
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Bowler
Diary of an Englishman after he moves to South Africa….
**August 1**: Just got transferred with work from London, UK to our new home in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Now this is a town that knows how to live! Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings. I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my new home. I love it here.
**September 1:** Really heating up now. It got to 31 today. No problem though. Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in London! Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. No more mowing lawns for me! Another scorcher today, but I love it here. It’s Paradise !
**October 1:** The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s windy though. Keeps the flies off a bit. Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected. Fell asleep by the pool yesterday. Got third degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed three days off work. What a dumb thing to do. Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!
**October 25:** This wind is a bastard. It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer. And it’s hot as hell! The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged R200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from @#$# Johannesburg. The wife & the kids are complaining.
**October 30:** The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner. House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bleeding R4 million house and we can’t even go inside. Why the hell did I ever come here?
**November 4:** Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost R1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 35 degrees. Stupid repairman. Fucking thief. If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to fucking throttle him. Fucking heat! By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat. Fucking place is the end of the Earth.
**November 9:** Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car. I thought my fucking backside was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking behind. Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried bum and baked cat. The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording – hot and sunny. Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 bleeding months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Fuck!!
**November 15:** Doesn’t it ever rain in this darn place? Water restrictions will be next, so my R5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool. The only things that thrive in this hell-hole are the fucking flies. You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little buzzards!
**November 20:** Welcome to HELL! It got to 45 degrees today. Now the air conditioner is gone in my car. The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I wanted to shove the car up his backside. Anyway, had to spend the R2,500 of the mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid fool. Fucking PHALABORWA! What kind of sick, demented idiot would want to live here!
**December 1:** WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
You are fucking kidding me, right?
Bombay Shivers
Fun South African Fact: South Africa is known as the “Rainbow Nation” thanks to its mix of cultures across the country. The status of being a cultural “melting pot” is evident in the fact that South Africa has a whopping 11 official languages: English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, IsiNdebele, Sesotho, Northern Sotho, Setswana, SiSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga. Most South Africans speak more than one national language. IsiZulu is the most common first language and isiXhosa is second. Fun fact – did you know the people of Wakanda speak isiXhosa in Marvel’s Black Panther movie?