There are so many segments that may shock and horrify many of you that I have not included here but here are a few links.
www.youtube.com – search SA Doctors Strike, SA hospitals, etc.
www.carteblance.co.za – search Dora Nginza
The cause of this uproar has been a long time coming and yet the problem still persists.
It is ethically incorrect to allow the people of our country to work or be treated in institutions that cannot adequately care for them.
Staff shortages, Equipment shortages, Damaged/insufficiently working equipment…..
The list goes on.
It is not ‘right’ to put anyone in a situation where they may feel helpless, in the doctors case, or hopeless, in many of the patients’ cases.
When will this come to an end?
When will we as South Africans stand together to have something done and help those who are helping us…
Totally agree, the government needs to step up salaries in all government departments to ensure that students wish to pursue their careers in that specific field. Salaries will definitely be a draw-card for this
Totally agree with the above sentiments
However, It is the government’s resposibility to provide an adequate level of health care for all the people of the country no matter whether they can afford it or not. This is a fundamental human right of every person
I would love to agree completely, but their is one key issue at hand, and this is the concept of budget distribution. When looking at this concept, many elements come to play.
I agree that the national budget should allocate more funds for medical and allied health professionals, but what about other resources? It is stated in your blog that conditions being worked in and equipment available to health-care professionals are of poor standard, but are the government truly or solely responsible for this?
This is where I differ. See, the budget gets set and funds are then allocated at the beginning of each financial year. However, it is mainly due to poor managerial skills, and those who assume those positions, that those funds are either incorrectly distributed, or incorrectly utilised. The result is that the “government” is blamed for our idea of poor management, but those who were placed on a local level escape the finger.
A book by Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, discloses that due to this poor managerial skills on the various local settings, the patients in turn are the sufferers of poor health care, and their right to equal health care is now violated.
I conclude by saying that yes, I do agree that the medical as well as allied health professionals deserve to be allocated more funds, but we should be more thorough when pointing the finger.
The problem of justice (equity) as it relates to resource distribution is a huge issue in South Africa. We’re trying desperately to address problems that are a direct result of decades of healthcare policies that effectively shut out the majority of the population.
Those issues are not going to be resolved overnight, and there will be birthing pains like this one as we try to move towards a system that is able to provide for the needs of the masses, while still maintaining a high quality service in our tertiary institutions.
Thank you for participating in an important conversation in our country.