E-DRUG: Community service for young pharmacists
---------------------------------------------------------------------
[copied as fair use from
http://www.iol.co.za/news/sa_section_newsview.php3?click_id=125&set_id
=1&art_id=ct20000126213719663P652936
Do other countries also ask young pharmacists to do a year of
community service (after their internships)?
If so, what are the experiences? Are these young pharmacists
managing to have an impact in a pharmacist-depleted public
sector?
WilbertBannenberg@compuserve.com
E-drug co-moderator]
---
A step closer to community service
January 26 2000 at 11:37PM
Legislation introducing community service for newly qualified
pharmacists completed its passage through parliament on Wednesday
when it was approved by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
The Pharmacy Amendment Bill, which must be signed into law by
President Thabo Mbeki, provides for 12 months community service,
similar to that asked of young doctors, starting January 2001.
The bill is an attempt to address the shortage of state pharmacists
and the skewed distribution of pharmacists across the country.
Most of the country's 10 206 pharmacists are concentrated in Gauteng,
which has one for every 1 738 people. The Northern Province has one
pharmacist for every 16 446 people. The average ratio for
industrialised countries is one to 2 300 patients.
Community service is expected to make an extra 500 pharmacists
available to the state yearly. Graduates who do not complete it will
be not be able to register as pharmacists in South Africa.
The bill was opposed in the NCOP by the Democratic Party, the New
National Party and the African Christian Democratic Party, and, in
the formal voting by province, by the Western Cape.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang denied that her department
had been prescriptive, and said it had consulted students.
It was a contradiction in terms for the DP to talk about its concern
for the poor and then say the government should not redistribute
resources.
It was also ridiculous that South Africa should have to rely on
expatriate doctors, she said, who came to this country under
government-to-government agreements.
ACDP MP Kent Durr said his party was concerned that certain
categories of health workers were being penalised on the basis of
their choice of career.
"Indeed, we are not at all sure that this measure is not
unconstitutional in terms of section 13 of the Constitution on forced
labour, and section 9 on equality."
Tshabalala-Msimang replied that community service had to start
somewhere, and would be expanded to include other categories of
health workers. - Sapa
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.