SUNDAY April 06, at 18:30 on SABC
2:
Thousands of vacant posts, poor maintenance and insufficient budgets: many patients get a raw deal at South Africa’s state hospitals - we tell of conditions at hospitals in 3 provinces ...
An annual budget (for the 2007/2008 financial year) of more than R12 billion for the Gauteng Health Department - and decentralized powers to CEO's of hospitals to manage and spend part of that budget - grand plans to provide what should be quality health care for thousands of mainly un-insured South Africans.
But, elevators that don't work, cut-backs in the number of operating theatres and procedures, long queues, patients having to wait for months for operations, a shortage of staff and low staff morale continue to affect service delivery to patients of the Johannesburg Hospital. This hospital at least was honest about the challenges it faces – the Helen Joseph Hospital – also in Johannesburg – ignored various attempts by Focus to secure an interview and access to the hospital.
The dire shortage of medical staff in Free State state hospitals may have contributed directly to the death of some patients. “Regrettable” is how the province’s MEC for Health, Sakhiwo Belot, refers to this loss of life. More than a third of the nine and a half thousand posts at state hospitals in the Free State are vacant.
In March, the Centre for Social Accountability (affiliated to Rhodes University) expressed its deep concern about the state of public health services in the Eastern Cape. MEC for Health, Nomsa Jajula, joins us in our Port Elizabeth studio to answer questions about financial mismanagement and staff shortages in the Eastern Cape.
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