The South African healthcare system is a somewhat broken and lacking system and everyone in the receiving end is not totally satisfied with what the healthcare system is providing.
The picture of a kettle with water not filled up to its full capacity is a clear representation of the South African healthcare system. The maximum water level mark represents the level and the quality of healthcare which is supposed to be provided, while the 0.8-litre mark, which is where the water level is, represents what is being provided by the healthcare system. The empty space between the 0.8-litre mark and maximum represent the amount of work required to improve the healthcare service to become a one that provides quality, satisfactory service to the people. This space exists because of things such as negligence by staff, ill-treatment of patients, lack of infrastructure, poor hospital conditions and health facilities being understaffed. All these mostly exist in public hospitals.
When patients go to a hospital or clinical whether for a check-up or to collect medication they stand on long queues while waiting to be helped by those who are on duty. This is due to hospitals and clinics being understaffed to function smoothly and serve the number of people that visit the facilities on a daily basis.
When patients visit a hospital or they are admitted, most of the time they get subjected to some mistreatment by hospital staff. Staff members are sometimes reluctant to be of help to the patients. “On 29 August 2017, City Press reported on alleged medical negligence at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital which resulted in the death of a baby. Nomusa Nkomo went into labour when she was 24 weeks pregnant. She was rushed to the hospital, but the nurses allegedly refused to help her, as they claimed to be off -duty”(Roodt &Fleming, 2018). “On 8 November 2017, News24 reported on an incident videoed in St Mary’s Hospital in Mariannhill, KwaZulu-Natal, where a staff nurse mistreated a bedridden patient, ridiculing her for being unable to sit up to have her diaper changed and not drawing the bed curtains to give the woman privacy” (Roodt & Fleming, 2018). This is due to staff not being committed to helping patients.
Sometimes patients experience pure negligence from the healthcare facility staff whereby patients are not offered proper care with doctors not being cautious about the complications that may arise from the time of care they are providing. “On 6 January 2018, The Citizen reported on a man who had a damaged ankle, due to medical negligence. EM Maphosa had badly fractured his ankle while being assaulted by the police. He was initially taken to Musina Hospital, transferred to Tshilidzini Hospital, and then transferred back to Musina Hospital, without any surgery being done. He was discharged despite a part of the wound still being open and his only being able to walk on crutches”(Roodt & Fleming, 2018). “On 19 January 2018, IOL reported on a case of what one patient’s family believed were botched operations at R K Khan Hospital in Durban. The 47-year-old patient was left bedridden after two operations where incisions were left open and the patient was discharged regardless” (Roodt & Fleming, 2018). “On 8 February 2018, IOL reported that a toddler was brain damaged due to alleged negligence at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg. Abiyola Mncono, suffered a brain injury from lack of oxygen, after choking on her own vomit. She had been taken to hospital suffering from croup, and, while there, doctors had advised that she undergo surgery to fix an abnormality in her intestines. The surgery reportedly went well and without incident, but after the procedure, the toddler began vomiting. Nurses were allegedly slow to respond, leading to the toddler choking on her own vomit”(Roodt & Fleming, 2018). These are situations that can be avoided if the hospital staff was more cautious and sensitive to the patients’ needs.
Mismanagement of funds also plays a role in holding back the South African healthcare system. It makes it impossible for hospitals to be equipped with proper and recent infrastructure and also hire enough staff. “On 1 December 2017, the Daily Maverick published an extensive article identifying corruption in the healthcare sector, which it blamed for R24 billion of irregular expenditure – money spent outside of the legal framework and without proper authorisation – in the healthcare system between 2009 and 2013″(Roodt & Fleming). This leads to hospitals being below acceptable standards.
Reference
Roodt, M., Fleming, M.(2018). South African Institute of Race Relations: South Africa’s National Death Insurence Scheme. Retrieved from https://irr.org.za/reports/occasional-reports/files/sa-nhi-scheme.pdf
One thought on “Level Up- Phosa Thato Lefopsane Solomon”
Hi Thato. Thanks for your assignment and for the opportunity to give some feedback on your work. I see what you’re saying about the similarities between the health system and an unfilled kettle. However, it’s not clear to me if the SA health system is unfilled i.e. it’s potential has not been realised, or if it’s fundamentally broken. I also get the feeling that this post is how *you* feel about the health system, rather than how a patient sees it. I thought that you could have spent a bit more time including more content that related specifically to examples that you may have read about. You only briefly touch on these topics and there’s a lot of space for you to address them in a bit more depth. What is it about the system that is unfulfilled? Are you sure that this is how patients are treated? Where is your evidence in support of what you wrote about the government? Is this your opinion or are they facts? I thought that it would be useful if you have presented a stronger argument for why you think these things. I think that you can include some references in support of some of the arguments you make in your post. What have you read about this topic? Thanks again for your piece and good luck with your revisions.