A 93% aggregate with 9 distinctions. That was what it took to get into the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine as a female South African of Indian descent. I got a R20 000 discount for my first year of medical school and my father paid every cent in full for the subsequent five years.
My father is also a South African of Indian descent. He lived in a one bedroom home with his five siblings and parents. He worked as a common labourer but was blessed with the strength, courage and determination to open his own business – his highest level of education being a matric certificate. His blood, sweat and tears are what got me a private school education and put me through medical school.
I managed to complete my six year medical degree cum laude. That still didn’t earn me any discounts or favours. I was lucky enough to be placed within KwaZulu-Natal for both internship and community service, and completed it with an excellent work ethic. My ultimate goal is to become a paediatrician, and serve and help the children of this country who need dedicated doctors. To aid me on this journey and to get a head start, I wrote an extra exam for paediatrics and passed this with distinction as well.
Towards the end of community service, the rat race to find a job began. It is common knowledge in the medical field that government posts are hard to come by due to funding. There simply is no money to pay doctors – despite there being a shortage of doctors. In 2022, our doctor-patient ratio was 1:3198. The recommended ratio by the World Health Organization is 1:1000.
Government posts are advertised on the government website and applicants who meet all requirements are free to apply. Many of the adverts for paediatric posts included a disclaimer saying that preference will be given to ‘African males,’ but everyone is encouraged to apply. Feeling slightly deterred, I applied anyway. I did not get any feedback – from any of the 8 posts I applied for in KwaZulu-Natal and 2 posts in Gauteng.
The facility that I completed my community service at were thoroughly impressed with my work and level of commitment, and offered me a post. Two weeks later, a directive from the district office of the department of health was received: All new posts that become available are to be held for bursary holders. And the food was figuratively snatched from my mouth.
It is now January 2024. I am a cum laude medical doctor. I am sitting at home – unemployed. But I am not alone – most of my peers are in the same boat as I am. There are currently almost 800 unemployed medical doctors in the country, while the people of our country are travelling for 2 to 3 hours and sitting in queues for 5 to 6 hours waiting to see a doctor.
My options are:
1. Go around GP practices and private hospitals and beg for any number of locum hours available.
2. Sit at home and wait for a government post to become available (for months? Years?).
3. Open my own GP practice (take a loan? Sell a kidney?) – and let go of the dream of ever specialising.
4. Leave the country and find some place that actually wants the skills and knowledge that I have.
With matric results having been released, seeing the enthusiastic smiles and optimistic plans for the future of many of the top achievers, brings a sadness to my heart. Nine years ago, that was me. Excited to be one step closer to realising my dreams. If I knew then what I know now, would I still have chosen the path that I have? After sacrificing nine years of my life to be sitting unemployed, would I still have accepted the offer to study medicine?
Almost a month into unemployment, with debit orders looming, the answer is probably, no. I don’t come from a privileged enough background to be able to sit and wait indefinitely for the government to realise my potential.
I have the passion and drive to want to serve the children of my country but am now being forced into the private sector just so I can have some form of income.
I am a South African citizen. My family and I have worked hard to get to where we are. But we are always left behind. We have doctors able, willing and ready to work; we have patients desperate to get the treatment that is their basic human right. We have our government, failing us in every way possible.
Sunhera Sukdeo matriculated in 2014 from Star College with 9 distinctions. She was born and raised in KwaZulu-Natal and completed her studies at UKZN. Sukdeo completed her medical degree in 2020 and has just completed community service. Paediatrics is her passion and the reason she chose to study medicine.