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UK doctor leaves after year without pay at Frere
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07.24.04 (4 years ago)
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UK doctor leaves after year without pay at Frere
DR NIGHTINGALE'S LAST ROUNDS: British doctor Gordon Fuller had a last look at nine-year-old patient Ndumiso Gojo before he finally said goodbye to his colleagues at Frere Hospital. Picture by PHILLIP NOTHNAGEL
EAST LONDON - Gordon Fuller, a young British-qualified doctor, has always been keen to work in a South African state hospital.
So keen that, as a result of bureaucratic bungling, Fuller for the past year worked for free in Frere Hospital's B6 paediatric ward.
In March Fuller, who is returning to the United Kingdom today after his visa expired, had to travel back to his home country to do a three-week locum for another doctor to prop up his finances.
"I applied for the job at Frere, which had been advertised on the British Medical Journal's website. Eighteen months prior to my arriving here in October last year, I completed the necessary applications with the Department of Home Affairs for a work permit and for registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)."
However, because of red-tape, changed regulations and lost application forms, Fuller arrived here without a permit and only succeeded registering with the council as a volunteer - with no pay to go with the job.
To further add injury to his predicament his newly purchased used car was stolen at Frere Hospital two months after he first arrived here.
"But luckily Dr Kim Harper, a consultant, lent me an old car to get around with," he said.
Despite his unfortunate experiences with the South African and medical bureaucracy, Fuller said he enjoyed his stay in East London and his work at Frere Hospital.
"The nursing staff were very friendly and my medical colleagues were most helpful."
He said both Dr Morris Levy, head of the Paediatrics
department, and Dr Gerry Boon, a colleague, continuously tried to organise a work permit for him which would enable him to earn a salary. He lived in hospital accommodation during his period with Frere.
Fuller said he would love to return to South Africa to work.
"The experience that I have gained here, I would never have got in a British hospital.
"It is very different and harder. Here I have seen sick children die of Aids and TB, cases which you would seldom see at home in a British hospital."
Fuller said British hospitals were better funded and the equipment probably better.
"Here I have been doing things that would be entrusted to a senior doctor in Britain."
He said most of his fellow doctors who qualified with him had gone to Australia
and New Zealand
where they earned good money. "But I wanted a different experience."
He came prepared, however. "I was aware for instance of the HIV problem and brought my own supply of anti-retroviral drugs in case I accidentally was affected with HIV-positive blood."
Would he have come to South Africa had he known at the time of his application that he would not earn a salary?
"I don't know. The registration process with the HPCSA was difficult and frustrating to say the least."
There may be another reason for Fuller to return to South Africa. When he arrived here, he was single, without a girlfriend. And now?
"Not exactly."
While here he met an intern who works at the Cecilia Makiwane Paediatrics
wards. Hopefully, he'll see her when she goes to England next year.
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