According to the English Oxford dictionary, a hospital is “an institution providing medical and surgical treatment as well as nursing care for sick or injured individuals”. Millions of people get admitted to hospital daily whether it be to government hospital or private care. Each patient has a different experience and different view of a hospital. Many may say that the South African health system has many complications and questionable characteristics. This essay will be discussing my view of the South African health system.
When I think of the South African health system the image provided comes to mind, the image of a hospital hallway, the first half of the hallway is bright and well-lit while the other half is dusky with very little light. The well-lit half of the hallway represents patients receiving private hospital care, to these patients the hospital setting is a safe place filled with hope. Patients feel that they can put their trust in the medical stuff at private hospitals. Private health care provides better and a greater deal of heath care services, this goes hand in hand with better and more resources (such as equipment). The other half of the hallway represents patients that experience government hospital settings, it seems gloomy and dark, patients seem to have a more challenging time not only personally but also developing trust with the hospital staff is difficult. There are less resources available and many resources have not been replaced with new. As one can see, it is obvious that there are many differences, not only concerning the environments of government and private hospitals but patient experience in government and private facilities, we will be looking into detail what these differences are.
Many articles have done studies and evaluated the South African health system as well as patient evaluation of their health system. As much as the factor of an adequate environment is important in the health system, patient experience is also very significant. The private health environment has many advantages such as short waiting periods; no rushed appointment; better facilities and appropriate disease control and prevention practices. Whereas public health facilities are known for their unfavorable environments with factors such as long waiting periods; rushed appointments; old facilities; deprived disease control and prevention practices (Young, 2016). Contributing toward this essay, the journal article, “People-centeredness in health system reform. Public perceptions of private and public hospitals in South Africa” (Harris,2018) focused on patients perspectives of the healthcare in the South African private and public settings. The opinions of these two settings were compared and found that patients reacted positively toward private patient care with one of the patients mentioning that “…everybody knows their job, they know what they’re supposed to do” positive comments about factors such as respect and care from the medical staff. However, referring to perspectives on public hospitals, the patients had quite negative comments to add such as feeling neglected and unsafe by the staff or even shown “abusive attitudes”. A patient added that “…they have poor attitudes, a very poor attitude towards their job, towards you as a patient”.
The differences in the two healthcare services stand out firmly and are very well-know in South Africa. it may seem that the South African health system in struggling tragically but the positive part is that many patients are undergoing successful and appropriate treatment. However there are still many patients who are unable to get proper medical treatment but the South African heath system is still able to change many of these issues.
References
Definition of hospital in English . (n.d.). Retrieved from Englsih oxford liviing dictionaries : https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/hospital
Harris,B., Maseko,L. People-centeredness in health system reform (2018). Public perceptions of private and public hospitals in South Africa. South African Journal of Occupational therapy,48(1), 24-25.
Young, M. (2016). Private vs public healthcare in South Africa . Michigan: Honors Thesis .
One thought on “A Gap Between Public and Private Healthcare in South Africa”
I think your choice of picture reflect your text and statements in a very powerful way. I was supprised to hear how the differences between private and public healthcare can be so wide in South-Africa, while in Norway the only difference is that in public healthcare the waiting periode is often significantly shorter, and the health service is more expensive for the patient. Otherwise, the quality of the survice and the disease control is pretty much the same. I think it would have been interesting if you could find som more research that describes how the patients of your country experience this huge gap, maybe some references that could support the emotional aspect more clearly, like in your picture. But I absolutely think that you make a clear and good point in this text, and you highlight an important issue of your healthcare system. I find that your references are strong, and support your statements. Your text is easy to read, and I also find this theme very interesting. Very good job! i wish you the best of luck in your physiotherapy practice.