• Thabile Mange writes:
Most of the time, I use taxis to work. I have been using public transport for more than 10 years now. It’s cheaper, though risky. I board a taxi next to a public clinic. By 05:00, summer or winter, there is already a queue of patients seeking medical attention. Yet the clinic opens at 08:00.
My concern is that most people who queue at the clinic, early in the morning, are the elderly. It is risky for them to leave their homes at 04:30 to be the first ones in the queue. They arrive early so that they don’t spend their entire day at the clinic.
In 1994, when the ANC campaigned, it promised to improve the public health care system. It has instead done the opposite: Messed it up. Our public health facilities are in a worse state than they were before. Interestingly, the governing party is still promising to better the system. It now sounds like a stuck record.
Not long ago, a man who was admitted to a public hospital in Johannesburg, exposed the state of that hospital using his cellphone. The patient discovered that there was no hot water in the bathrooms. There was also no tissue in the toilets. Fortunately for him, he was transferred to a private hospital through crowdfunding.
It may have been a shock for him to see a public health facility in that state. However, for many people, especially blacks, it is normal but unacceptable. Blacks have no choice but to use public health facilities when they are ill. So, they keep quiet when they are ill-treated in these facilities.
The government is now talking about the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHI). The NHI seeks to give access to quality health care to all. President Cyril Ramaphosa has already signed the health insurance scheme into law. However, the government has yet to indicate/ explain how it is going to fund the scheme.
It is an open secret that the poor don’t enjoy a quality healthcare service in the public healthcare sector. Consequently, some sadly die prematurely. I have also read stories in the media of patients who were wrongfully operated in public hospitals. Some were amputated wrong legs.
On the other hand, healthcare practitioners are demotivated, overworked and underpaid. As a result, they dish out poor service to innocent patients. They are also understaffed and work long hours. Yet the government is dragging its feet to employ more staff to improve service delivery in our hospitals and clinics.
In my view, the NHI is a good concept. It seeks to give access to quality healthcare to all. But is the government ready to implement the desirable and much-needed health scheme? The answer is a big NO. The government is just paying lip service and playing politics on the matter. I hope I’m wrong.
