South Africa's healthcare worker shortages are arguably the country's biggest healthcare story, yet government leaders have failed to tackle them, according to an editorial. It accompanies an investigation by journalist Sue Segar into unemployed doctors who protested for jobs in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year.
According to the editorial, many of the protesting doctors are committed young professionals who entered medicine to serve the public. Many also saw it as a secure route out of poverty. Now, however, they are struggling to find work.