Niël Terblanché
FEARS for their own safety and worries that they might not be able to successfully complete modules of their studies to become doctors saw medical students withdraw from the frontline of the COVID-19 battle.
Citing a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and a lack of understanding from department heads at the University of Namibia’s School of Medicine about them missing classes as a result of hospital duty and being placed in quarantine, 150 of the students stopped with their clinical rotations.
Besides the lack of PPE many of the aspirant doctors never received training on dealing with COVID-19 patients.
According to a member of the Student Representative Council (SRC) Pillipus Haihambo, many of the medical students that were placed in mandatory quarantine after having had contact with positive cases were told to catch up with their work after missing many classes and now fear that they might be forced to repeat a year of their studies.
The SRC said that the management of the School of Medicine situated on the Hage Geingob Campus near the Windhoek Central Hospital, did not and still does not have an emergency management plan in place for students that need to be quarantined.
The SRC recommended that all medical students withdraw from all clinical rotation until such time that they receive clarity on their grievances.
“It is not a boycott. It’s a protection of our rights,” the students said.
The aspirant doctors demanded that the school’s management respond in writing to assure them that when they return to the clinical rotations that reasonable compromise will have been made with regard to their academic duties especially to classes that were missed due to reasons out of their control.
