Friday, 20 November 2015




 EASTERN CAPE'S HEALTH CARE CRISIS
With all the challenges and difficulties one has to go through even when seeking primary care in public clinics and hospitals in the Eastern Cape, one can’t help but wonder whether the best option is to stay at home and hope to heal or go to the nearest clinic only to be disappointed by poor service and unmet needs.

Poor service and care in the health care department is just unacceptable, imagine having to wake up at 5 a.m. in the morning to go to a clinic, having to walk 30 minutes or even way more than that the clinic opens at 8 a.m you get there only to find that it has not opened yet but its way past 8 a.m.  When they eventually open you spend hours sitting there waiting for your turn only to find out that there is no medication for your particular illness. It has come to a point where people do not even bother to go to the clinic because they know they only have Panado syrup in their cabinets, some people end up having to buy medication themselves, those who can afford to. What happened to free health service for all?

The health care department in the Eastern Cape faces a major problem of staff shortage (nurses& doctors) , having two nurses on duty for about a hundred patients or more a day does not only affect the patients but the nurses on duty as well. You cannot expect a person to give proper care and full attention to each and every one of those patients because as much as is it about helping the patient it has become more like reaching a deadline. They end up having to worry about those they will have to send back home because they have “run out of time”. Are there now shortcuts to healing a person? Are some illnesses better than others? Is our health care system working ?

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6 comments:

  1. Unknown23 November 2015 at 12:37

    As a person who grew up in Eastern cape having to depend on our public services for Health, Education and service delivery, I have experience all the things you express in this blog and I feel it must not be neglected anylonger let's talk about these things. Going to a public hospital for a simple thing but because of staff shortages you have to spend 7hours waiting because there aren't enough hospitals and number of people depend on that one hospital which is just absurd. great topic keep writing

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  2. Tebogo Gantsa24 November 2015 at 23:46

    In our public health system some of the saddest and miraculous things happen. For some it is a life and death situation. They know that going to a clinic or hospital won't solve their problems. Some people have had their lives saved by the public health system. I am one of those people. So to know that there is that potential and still have people die from preventable ailments is heartbreaking.

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  3. Anonymous25 November 2015 at 12:59

    Public health care department are the worst some time it's not just because of shortage of staff but because available staff neglect their duties and drag their feet when problem health care service and they take long lunch hours or frequent breaks. This is a problem everywhere and it should be addressed.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous25 November 2015 at 13:01

      "When probing health care services"

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    2. Unknown25 November 2015 at 13:02

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous25 November 2015 at 13:03

      Providing

      Delete

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