The SA Medical Association (Sama) has voiced concern over the attack on a doctor at a Mpumalanga public hospital and called for stringent security measures to be implemented to protect healthcare workers and patients.

“On Tuesday night, a doctor at the Mapulaneng hospital in Mpumalanga was attacked while on her way to the doctor’s residential quarters after her shift. She was hijacked, robbed at gunpoint and the perpetrators attempted to rape her. The doctor is, rightly, extremely traumatised by this experience,” Sama said in a statement on Thursday.

The incident follows the killing of a nurse at Thembisa hospital this month by her partner, a policeman.

“Sama is concerned that doctors in public sector hospitals are living and working in constant fear and, in general, feel unsafe within their working environments. Sama has on many occasions raised concerns regarding safety at public hospitals,” said the association.

Sama said it had proposed that stringent security measures be implemented for the protection of healthcare workers and patients in dire need of medical services.

“Sama is taking the issue of safety and security seriously and urges all stakeholders to collectively acknowledge the extreme level of the problem and to find solutions in the interests of everyone in the country.”

TimesLIVE