Being a patient within the South African health system, particularly the in the public sector run solely by governmental funding, is expressed by most as an unpleasant experience. The reason for the chosen picture was to represent the ever-present uphill battle that both patients and health professionals must face within the public hospital settings. This reading will provide more information regarding the problems faced by patients in South Africa’s current health system.

Being a third world country comes with it’s fair share of difficulties. One major problem, being our health system. What we as health professionals also seem to become absent minded of is the fact that our patients can pick up on our attitudes while we are treating them. Reports of nurses and cleaning staff within hospitals have indicated their frustrations of being underpaid, and due to lack of funds being implemented into our healthcare system, have to work in unfavorable conditions such as having to work without masks and gloves when treating contagious patients, thus placing them also at risk of contracting certain conditions. This results in many of these healthcare workers seeking employment opportunities in different countries. South Africa has abundance of large hospitals, but due to this issue are understaffed, with respects to nursing staff and cleaners. This has a negative impact on physiotherapists as well, as we will then have to fill the shoes of the missing staff and perform roles in the healthcare system that we were inadequately trained for. This forces us as physiotherapists to rush our respective treatments, offer a poorer standard of healthcare to our patients, and not be able to connect on an empathetic level with our patients. This has evoked the desire of many students within South Africa to move abroad once they have graduated, which will cause a backlog in almost every health profession we have to offer in our country. This vicious cycle results in poor quality care of our patients and is thus always the patient’s expectation. This picture thus represents the constant uphill battle that the health professionals, and consequently, patients have to endure.

Despite the governments efforts of putting policies in place to address the apartheid health legacy to provide each individual, regardless of race, with health affordable and efficient healthcare, we in South Africa are still experiencing an ever increasing rate of HIV/AIDS infections. Life expectancy, due to further deterioration of our health system, has decreased from 61.4 to 51.4 within the years 1995 to 2002, and with the increasing rate of healthcare providers wanting to leave the country in search of better opportunity , these figures are likely to increase (Sanders & Chopra, 2006). Living and maintaining a healthy life also requires a proper social infrastructure. A person’s health is not just determined by the absence of a disease but also includes a balance in physical, mental, and nutritional well-being. These aspects of health can also be traced back to maternal nutrition, and the mother’s physical environment. If the mothers in our country are constantly exposed to unfavourable socioeconomic conditions, of which 55.5% of the South African population already does (Wilkinson, 2018), it is likely that more children, and thus the population, will be exposed to more nutritional and communicable diseases. Thus just looking at our health system as the primary problem could place the already fraudulent and corrupt government into further debt, and thus preventing all chances of being able to properly provide our healthcare workers with proper funding and salaries (Benatar, 2013).

In conclusion, it is evident that our government in South Africa has to take many factors into account to provide us with more funding for our healthcare workers, as opposed to just trying to implement more funding in a national health insurance fund, and end fraudulent behaviours to provide people with better or at least sustainable socio-economic statuses. This will provide the people South Africa with more independence with regards to managing their own health and allow more favourable working conditions for our healthcare workers.

References

Benatar, S. (2013). The challenges of health disparities in South Africa. South African Medical Journal, 1-2.

Sanders, D., & Chopra, M. (2006). Attaining Health In An Inequitable World. Key Challenges to Achieving Health for All in an Inequitable Society: The Case Of South Africa, 1-3.

Wilkinson, K. (2018, February 15). FACTSHEET:South Africa’s Official Poverty Numbers. Retrieved from Africa Check: https://africacheck.org/factsheets/factsheet-south-africas-official-poverty-numbers/