This picture was taken at Philippi in a public clinic called Inzame Zabantu. There are several patients awaiting medical care in a seemingly small space and some are standing because they are not attended to on time because the clinics are short-staffed thus leading to a very slow process of assisting patients and then they are forced to wait for long periods of time before they can be assisted. I chose this picture because it shows the downfall of most South African community healthcare facilities, the fact that they are small and short-staffed, and that people get overcrowded in them. This photo means that patients are attended to in very overpopulated clinics and that they are highly likely to end up suffering from more ailments than the ones that they actually came to be treated for. An example would be when there are patients who have airborne diseases such as TB and influenza which can be transferred when an infected person coughs, sneezes, sings or talks, droplets containing the bacteria and the ones who are not infected inhale the bacteria. Most of the people in the picture are not wearing surgical masks that are supposed to protect them from such sicknesses. The benches that the people are sitting on are made of wood and community clinics have very long waiting hours because there are very few health-care practitioners assigned to help patients, that means that people have to stand or sit for a very long time when waiting for medical care and thus could lead to serious sicknesses such as prolonged lower-limb muscle fatigue, long-term back pain, musculoskeletal disorders, osteoporosis etc. The services that they can access here is mostly medicine in the form of pills, ointments, wrapping etc. They hardly get any physiotherapeutic medical attention.
“Poverty fosters tuberculosis Airborne mycobacteria spread easily in overcrowded places” (Broekmans, UN Millennium Project & Caines, 2005). This means that the Tuberculosis bacteria is easily spread in overcrowded spaces. Places such as community health clinics pose as a great danger in the spread of diseases such as TB, more especially when people do not adhere to the health regulations that are put in place, such as wearing surgical masks at all times and opening windows so that there can be enough fresh air in the room to combat the TB bacteria. “Lack of activity may cause weak bones and even osteoporosis” (Mercola, 2015). This means that when a person is less active or mobile, they are at a very high risk of having weak bones or diseases such as osteoporosis which affect one’s bones. Now taking into consideration the fact that patients in community health clinics must be in stationary positions for longer periods when they need medical assistance are very much likely to have diseases such as osteoporosis due to having to wait for hours in order to receive medical attention.
Reference
Broekmanns, J., UN Millenium Project & Caines, K. (2005). Investing in Strategies to Reverse the Global Incidence of TB. UK: Earthscan Mercola, J, (2015). Fitness Peak: Here’s What Sitting Too Long Does to Your Body. Retrieved from: https://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/05/08/sitting-too-long.aspx
One thought on “Long walk to health”
Your topic is a good metaphor to describe the problem your´e presenting. Your photo as well proves the point you want to make. The impression the text gave me was that the main difference between the clinic you presented and our clinics in Norway is that our waiting room environment is very different. We also have the waiting lists at clinics, especially in acute medical facilities, but we don´t have the spread of the deceases you describe. The patients attending these waiting rooms might feel neglected and not prioritized. I imagine they wait longer before they seek medical attention because of this as well. The way you present it its easy to grasp what you wanted to get through. Your text is easy to read.
What i found most interesting was that the problem is so present, and I would never have thought that the waiting rooms would be formed like that. This I will take with me for though in my approach to patients, who might all have experienced different things throughout their life. Your text was really an eye-opener for me. Good work!