WC public health care expensive for the rural poor 19.10.2010 Jacqui Ryan *Photo credit:* www.tropika.net [image: text] *Western Cape residents agreed they would rush their province’s health care system to the emergency room, if they thought it would do any good.*
Dozens of the province’s civil society activists gathered in Cape Town recently to diagnose the well-being of the province’s health system. Organised by the Black Sash in partnership with the University of Cape Town’s Health Economics Unit and Health-e News Service, the provincial health workshops will travel to all provinces in South Africa culminating in a report which will be shared with Government once public consultations are held on National Health Insurance (NHI). Western Cape participants identified the five major problems that interfered with their ability to receive quality care. These included a poor district health system with little preventative care, unfunded home-based carers for the ill, an under-prioritised health budget, pervasive crime, and problems with public and private health insurance. The Western Cape, on average, is in better shape than the rest of the country, with for example the highest incidence of piped water and electricity and the lowest incidences of infant and child mortality. But the health system still needs work, participants said. There are many policies and laws, including the International Declaration of Human Rights, to ensure all South Africans receive appropriate medical care, but many of these laws don’t match reality. It’s hard to receive care if your nearest public hospital is hundreds of kilometers away, noted some rural residents who said they spend approximately R800 to travel to the doctor. Another participant said a nurse and doctor were held up at gunpoint while trying to start a community clinic near Somerset West. Others noted that some doctors and nurses will no longer actually physically touch patients while examining them and instead simply ask patients questions for a diagnosis. Despite laws and policies, the participants also noted hostile or indifferent attitudes of doctors and nurses toward patients, understaffed hospitals, failing medical infrastructure, and poor communication practices regarding health care. http://www.health-e.org.za/news/article.php?uid=20032979 -- News is something someone, somewhere doesn’t want to read. The rest is PR.— Claud Cockburn www.kwelaxpress.co.za -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
