Health MEC urges men to seek medical attention when necessary

KZN Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane has urged men to put their pride aside and seek medical assistance timeously to prevent premature and unnecessary death.

Simelane made this statement on Friday at her department’s weekly Chat Government multimedia programme, as the country commemorates Men’s Month.

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She cautioned against the dangers of men relying on their wives and girlfriends’ medical results as an indicator that they are safe from diseases.

“The accurate approach is for each individual to get tested, to be sure of where he stands as far as his health is concerned,” she said.

Simelane explained that her department has adopted a new approach to make it easier for men to speak more openly about diseases that plague them.

“We will allocate male nurses to clinics, community health centres and hospitals, to avoid a person with a sexually-transmitted infection or symptoms of prostate cancer from suddenly say he’s suffering from a headache, just because he’s being attended to by a young female nurse.

“Yes, the department caters for the health needs of everybody in society, but in the course of what we do, it has become clear that there are certain population groups that need to be treated in a special way.

“Men, as a population group, need our specific focus because their attitude towards their own health, and towards the healthcare system, is concerning.

“For us, finding men proved to be such a challenge that the government had to establish a programme dedicated to bringing men to healthcare facilities.

“Generally, men only come forward when they’re too sick.

“It is such a problem in our society that we have even come to accept that, in any family, the man is the one who must die first.

“When married couples reach 80 or 90 years of age, it is regarded as an anomaly, which shouldn’t be the case.

“It is not natural that men must die early.
It is precisely because when men are sick, they do not come to our clinics, or go to the doctor or hospital.

“When a man has an eye problem, he will not speak up. Not because he’s not in pain, but he does not want to go to a nurse and explain, and thinks it’s a waste of time.

“Men, unlike women, persevere until it’s too late. And by the time they present at a healthcare facility, their ailment has been prolonged and it is too late for them to get help,” she said.

She further explained that it is common among many couples for a woman to get tested for a myriad ailments, including Covid-19, HIV, and diabetes, and when they come back with a clean bill of health, the man will say,

“Since you have been cleared, it means I’m also fine,” forgetting that a person’s health condition is their own, and does not necessarily reflect on anyone else.

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