Alex clinic beefs up security to protect foreign doctors

The Alexandra Clinic has beefed up security to protect its foreign doctors‚ said the Democratic Alliance shadow MEC for health‚ Jack Bloom.

Foreign doctors stayed away over the weekend because of the xenophobic violence‚ said Bloem‚ “which is why there was no doctor on duty to treat Mozambican Emmanuel Sithole when he was brought there after being attacked on Saturday morning”.

Sithole’s killing was captured by photographer James Oatway and published in the Sunday Times this week.

Oatway had taken a dying Sithole to the Alexandra Clinic‚ whose staff couldn’t help him‚ before ending up at a hospital in Edenvale‚ where he was later declared dead.

“It adds to the tragedy that Sithole did not receive prompt treatment that could possibly have saved his life because a foreign doctor was fearful to be at the clinic where he was first taken‚” said Bloom.

“Many foreign doctors do good work treating South Africans in our hospitals and clinics‚ but they are also vulnerable to xenophobic violence‚” Bloem said‚ adding that Alex clinic has seven full-time doctors and seven sessional doctors‚ of whom eight are foreign.

“It is really sad that the clinic has to spend extra money on security to keep its staff safe from xenophobic violence.”