Deputy Minister of Health to host a dialogue on the establishment of a proposed Women Doctors' Association
The Deputy Minister of Health Dr Gwen Ramokgopa will host a dialogue on the establishment of a proposed Women Doctors’ Association that will be attended by women medical doctors from within the borders of South Africa on Saturday, 8 March 2014. This dialogue will be preceded by an accredited Continuous Professional Development (CPD) workshop on Ethics in Health.
This will be the first definite forum for women doctors in South Africa. It’s hosted as part of the planned activities in commemoration of the International Women’s Day. This day is observed annually on the 8th of March where the social, political and economic achievements of women are celebrated while focusing attention on inequities still to be redressed. Therefore, the Ministry of Health is hosting this forum to establish an association that will deal with such issues like sexism to redress these inequities.
An aspect of the medical profession that has been somewhat neglected is the creation of strategic partnerships to advance the practice of medicine with a specific focus on women in the medical profession. For that reason, since the advent of democracy, great advances have been made in increasing the numbers of women across a wide range of specialities in the medical profession. This saw women also constituting the bulk of students enrolling in the South African medical schools. Enrolment, however, does not always translate into successful completion of studies, and due to the nature of our society, women still face a disproportionate burden of challenges.
South Africa faces large and varied numbers of social and economic challenges. These continue to hamper progress towards the realisation of our vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous South Africa where every life counts and every individual has an opportunity to thrive and achieve their potential.
It is against this background that the concept of establishing an association of medical women in South Africa is being proposed. Such an association would bring together medical women from all disciplines and consider a number of objectives.
Some of these objectives are:
- The advancement of medical women across the various disciplines by establishing a network for collaboration on professional matters and many other social issues that hamper social development ;
- Promote cooperation among medical women regardless of race, political affiliation, geography and other real or perceived ‘differences’;
- Create a platform for strategic partnerships with women in other professions including medical women in other parts of the world;
- To establish a formal platform for mentoring and supporting young medical graduates and students;
- To promote excellence and ethics in the practice of medicine;
- To raise issues concerning women’s health especially conditions that have been neglected or that contribute to increased morbidity;
- Encourage social and harmonious relationships within and outside the profession;
- Empower women to lead in improving health for all within a model that reflects the unique perspectives of women;
- Leadership, advocacy, networking and identifying opportunities for individual and collective growth and development.
Activities are lined-up as follows:
Date: 8 March 2014
Time: (1) 9h00 to 13h00: Workshop on Health Ethics
(2) 14h30 to 18h00: Dialogue on the establishment of Women Doctors Association
Venue : Diep in die Berg Conference and Function Centre (Wapadrand – Pretoria East)
For media enquiries and arrangements for interviews, please contact:
Khutso Rabothata
Cell: 072 992 7171
