Stuart Macdonald is not a happy doctor.
After a year as an intern working 30-hour shifts and 300 hours every month, he simply will not consider uprooting his wife Bronwyn and their two children, Andrew (six) and Danielle (five months) to complete a year of community service outside the Western Cape.
Neither will he consider moving away from his family for the year.
"When I applied in the first round I attached all the relevant documentation filling them in on my personal circumstances. But everything was ignored and they told me I had to apply again. I didn't, because I don't plan to leave the Western Cape," he said.
He likened the community service process to conscription. While he could see the aim of redistributing doctors around the country, "the way in which it is being done is unacceptable".
"Without the interns there is just no way the hospitals would be operating. And now we are having to cope with another whole year of insecurity."
Macdonald was concerned that the long-term effect of the system would be to drive doctors overseas.
"If they don't give us posts now it means we will not be licensed to practice - even though we could quite legitimately leave at the end of the year and practise in Britain. But I don't think anyone here wants to have to go overseas. I certainly don't - but neither am I prepared to uproot my family nor to leave them here," he said.