South Africa is a third world developing country, we were given an assignment in which we had to display our point of view on how we view a patient in the South African health system.
The picture above displays two hands tied with a rope. One hand being the patient and the other hand being the health system. Even though the two hands are tied together and try to help each other, the rope symbolizes all the issues in the health system and the hurdles that the health system and patient must overcome to be “set free” from their illness. The health systems duty is to help patient who need it but there are things such as low staff, low amount of facilities and it could leave the health system feeling helpless as they are unable to do their job. World Health Organisation statistics from 2010 show that South Africa has 5.2 doctors per 1000 people, while Brazil has more than triple that, and Mexico five times. This displays our lack of staff members and it displays that more medical schools need to be opened and more funding opportunities should be available (Broomberg,2011).The patient also feels helpless as the hospital/health system is their only way to recover and if they do not receive the correct medication and treatment they may never recover. So, they would both like to help one another but the hands of both parties are tied together. The following inspections were done by the Office of Health Standards (OHS) in 2016/17 Breakfast (2018). Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi exposed the state of public health facilities. It displayed that most clinics and are operating lower than the required standard. This is expected as South Africa is a developing country. The report further says that only five out of 696 public health facilities reached the 80% “pass mark”. This mark was set by the Department of Health. This displays that there was a lack of funding for public health services in South Africa. The government needs to improve the health system and not all at once but gradually. They should take time out of their schedule to see what people go through to understand them better and try to make live better for others. Some practitioners do not take their patients into consideration but rather focus on their status and the salary they make. It was said by (Benatar, 2013) that strengthening existing facilities and high-quality teaching, conditions of service and care in clinical services should be encouraged. This would display healthcare professional’s excellence, rather than them just having a job for security and salary. If the health care system improves within themselves and between the health professionals, the patients would receive better care. This is how I view the South African health system, there are a lot of obstacles to overcome but when actions are put into plan, anything is possible.
References
Benatar, S. (2013). The challenges of health disparities in South Africa. South African Medical Journal, 1-2 http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/view/6622/4918
Breakfast, S. (2018, June 6). The South African. Public health fail: Report reveals that SA’s health facilities are in crisis. Retrieved from https://www.thesouthafrican.com/public-health-fail-report-reveals-that-sas-health-facilities-are-in-crisis/
Broomberg, J. (2011, July 19). Solving healthcare challenges in South Africa. Retrieved from leader.co.za: http://www.leader.co.za/article.aspx?s=1&f=1&a=2980
One thought on “Helping hands tied”
Hi Nikita, thank you for your assignment about about the different topics on the South African Health System. I like the image you have chosen to illustrate your topic and it works well with the text. The rope is a strong symbol for interconnection between two participators in a system. I though wonder if you meant that the patients also can help in developing the healthcare system when you write ” Even though the two hands are tied together and try to help each other”- or if I misunderstood you here. If you want to describe the patients role more active in developing the health system, that would be an interesting perspective and it might strengthen your assignment utterly. I would have loved to hear more about how the patients feel, how patients could be involved more in healthcare and how physiotherapists are part of this system.
The references you use seem accurate for the topic, even if there is more focus on the statistics for general health system and doctors than on physiotherapists – would it be possible to find some number for physiotherapists per 1000 inhabitants? While thinking about references that also reminds me of the passage where you point to the article of Benetar. It seems to me, that you are actually quoting directly from the text. Perhaps you should mark this with quotation marks “…” to strengthen your academic approach.
To structure your assignment and help the reader to follow your arguments more clearly I would recommend you to use distinct paragraphs where you analyse each subtheme separately: staff, funding, status, and the patient-health professionals interdependency etc.
I like how you finish your assignment with a positive perspective where “anything is possible” when all partners work together. I wish you good luck in participating in this process as a physiotherapist.