Unemployed pharmacists march to health department

SABC News reports that A large group of unemployed pharmacists have gathered at the National Department of Health in Pretoria to call upon government to intervene in the crisis facing their profession. More than 2 000 pharmacists are struggling to find employment, despite completing their compulsory community service. The pharmacists will hand over a memorandum to the Minister of Health urging him to take immediate action.

Pharmacists’ spokesperson, Trevor Ngobeni, says they want the department to reform its regulations and prioritise pharmacists’ employment needs. “We call upon the Minister of Health, and we call upon the Director-General, the South African Pharmacy Council for regulation and reform of all the Pharmacy Act laws as well as the private sector to please make sure that they focus and intensify the recruitment of pharmacists, because pharmacists are the backbone of this profession. Yes, we do have pharmacist assistants, but those people are secondary to pharmacists.”

Ngobeni added that the public sector is also severely understaffed with pharmacists. He claims that nurses and dispensing doctors are given priority, leaving pharmacists without opportunities. He further says while vacant posts exist, government refuses to unfreeze them. “There are multiple posts all over the country, all over the public institutions that are yet to be filled. But the government will not unfreeze those posts, hence basically we have a health care population or people seeking health care that are not being served because we have one pharmacist that is serving about 12 people in a public space.”

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