“The public healthcare system is, as we all know, under immense strain. It is a fragile system and is highly dependent on the annual replenishing of new graduates into the system,” SAMA chairperson Dr Mzukisi Grootboom said.

“Jeopardising this new intake will seriously impede healthcare delivery, and will ultimately have a knock-on effect on patient morbidity and even mortality.”

Witwatersrand University Vice Chancellor Adam Habib on Monday said that shutting down the 2016 academic year would have an impact on how many doctors graduated.

SAMA said that interns and junior doctors were the bedrock on which the public healthcare system was based, and that any disruption to their production would have dire consequences.

Grootboom said that apart from this immediate challenge, the medium to long-term consequences of a lack of interns and junior doctors would also be significant.

“Clearly the issues apply equally to the graduation of all professional cadres from our universities, including other healthcare and non-healthcare professionals. Our concern however is based on the potential negative impact on patient care and the consequences for our public healthcare system that delivers healthcare to the most vulnerable in our country,” he said.

On Monday, protesting students declared that the university institution would not be opened until their demands for free education were met, despite earlier agreeing with management to resume academic activities.

SAMA called on all students, universities and government to find each other in this matter in the interests of South Africa’s future, and said that government demonstrated a lack of leadership so far and urged it to intervene urgently.

“South Africa is a resilient country known for resolving its issues through peaceful dialogue; the current events call for that approach to be exercised again,” Grootboom said.

“A lasting solution to free quality education, from primary through to higher education, needs to be sought with a degree of urgency. Without the proper education of our people, our country will never make the strides it needs to address the economic needs, and imbalances that prevail.”

SAMA is a non-statutory, professional association for public, and private sector medical practitioners, that was formed in 1998 as a unification of a variety of doctors’ groups that had represented a diversity of interests.

The protests that have taken place at various universities in South Africa, started more than two weeks ago after Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande announced that state universities could hike next year’s fees capped at eight percent.

ANA