By: Hertha Ekandjo
Four medical interns have been kicked out of the Onandjokwe Hospital after it came out that they had failed their first internship in Windhoek.
The Onandjokwe state hospital is located in Ondangwa in the Oshana region.
One of the interns is said to have studied in Russia with grade twelve symbols that are not above the symbol E and as low as Symbol G.
This specific intern threatened to take the Onandjokwe Hospital to court after they were told to leave.
The interns told The Villager that when they decided to approach the superintendent known as Doctor Monica, they were told that she was not in the country.
“When we went back to the head of departments she told us that was the instruction that she got from the superintendent and that she had nothing to do with us,” explained one of the interns.
According to Onandjokwe Hospital’s head of department, Doctor Msanga, the reason why they asked the medical interns to leave was because there was no proof that they were really sent by the Health Professionals Council of Namibia (HPCNA).
Msanga said that she gets instructions from the medical superintendent on whether to accept these interns or not.
“They were supposed to bring a letter from the HPCNA stating that they were really sent by them and have been allocated to our hospital, which they did not have,” explained Msanga.
The head of the department told The Villager that it was impossible for her to accept these interns without a letter and communication from the medical superintendent.
Moreover, Msanga said they always had interns from Windhoek and never refused to accept them just because they were from the city.
“They were told to go back to HPCNA for more clarity, (they were) not chased,” she expressed.
Msanga further said that they don’t just accept interns from other hospitals without communication.
She further emphasized that there must be a reason why these interns were sent from Windhoek to the north.
HPCNA’s intern curator, Doctor Bezuidenhoudt, said that these were interns who were recently positioned at Windhoek central hospital, where they did rotations and failed.
Bezuidenhoudt said that there was an agreement between HPCNA and the Onandjokwe Hospital superintendent that some of the interns that failed could go to Onandjokwe for another and different examiners.
“This was to see if they will pass that side,” narrated Bezuidenhoudt.
Bezuidenhoudt told The Villager that two of the medical interns they sent that side ended up failing again.
He explained that as a result, the superintendent from Onandjokwe could not accept interns who failed in Windhoek.
“I was still supposed to call doctor Msanga, but I discussed it with the acting superintendent of Onandjokwe hospital. But still, Monica said she would not accept interns that side,” he said.
The curator stated that he was in the process of making arrangements for these rejected interns to go to Oshakati State hospital instead.
He, however, could not clarify why failed interns refused by one hospital could be sent to another.
“Some of these interns, like the one busy threatening to take the Onandjokwe hospital to court, that individual scored a ‘G’ symbol for typing and office administration in grade 12, a G in Physical science, E in Biology and i think an E or F in other subjects and went and studied medicine, came back and failed the internship here,” he stressed.
“We sent her to Onandjokwe, and she failed there. Is that a person who is supposed to study medicine?” Bezuidenhoudt questioned.
Moreover, he said that these were the interns that he was trying to assist, but they approached the media and portrayed the HPCNA as the bad guy.
