A pregnant North West woman has died during the doctors' strike, Health Minister Barbara Hogan said on Thursday.

"She had a ruptured uterus and died because she was not attended to," Hogan told reporters in Pretoria.

She said the military health service would be asked to help should the strike at state hospitals continue.

"I have written to the minister of defence in this regard," she said.

Doctors went on strike for pay increases of up to 50 percent as well as better working conditions. The strike started in Gauteng last Thursday and spread to other parts of the country.

Hogan said a set of proposal had been forwarded for collective bargaining by the public service co-ordinating bargaining council.

"We believe that the processes are going to be concluded as a matter of urgency. This will demonstrate our commitment to workplace-related democratic processes of finding solutions to challenges that confront our professionals."

Representatives of the Doctors' Forum interrupted the press conference to tell the minister that their counterparts at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto had joined the strike.

"Only one ward is operating in Bara," said forum spokesman Rapitse Malatji.

He said SA Medical Association was not representing all doctors, and the forum felt it needed to talk to the minister.

Hogan referred them to SA Medical Association, adding that she was not going to interfere in the matter as it was labour related.

The department was unable to immediately confirm the strike at Baragwanath.

Hogan explained there had been some delay in implementing the occupation specific dispensation (OSD) - an additional payment designed to make up for public sector doctors' poor pay and difficult working conditions.

The OSD was intended to revamp the structure of the health sector and career progression.

She explained the delay was technical as the department did not want to repeat the mistakes committed when the OSD for nurses was implemented.

She appealed to doctors to return to work because the strike was not protected.

"The principle of no work no pay will apply," she said.

Sapa

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