2,000 pharmacists unemployed: 'We're losing sight of their importance'
Trevor Ngubeni of the Union of Unemployed Pharmacists blames the crisis on frozen job posts, limited budgets, and the underappreciation of pharmacists' essential role in healthcare.
Picture: Pixabay: DarkoStojanovic
John Perlman interviews Trevor Ngubeni, Spokesperson of the Union of Unemployed Pharmacists.
Listen below:
Despite completing their mandatory community service, over 2,000 pharmacists are struggling to find employment, according to the SABC.
Ngubeni notes that the union has observed a significant influx of newly graduated pharmacists joining the ranks of those still seeking work, adding to the already substantial number of unemployed pharmacists from previous years.
He emphasises that pharmacists are increasingly being 'degraded' and their contributions undervalued, with many 'losing sight of just how important the role of a pharmacist in our healthcare space is'.
"It is not just us, the community service pharmacist group of 2024, but it is actually a collection of some previous groups as well that were disregarded by their provincial government..."
- Trevor Ngubeni, Spokesperson – Union of Unemployed Pharmacists
Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.