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A number of cardiac specialists have expressed concern about the dire shortage of specialists and resources to treat patients with heart-related illnesses at public hospitals.
This emerged at a seminar held in East London. The seminar also looked at how patients from rural areas can access treatment in public hospitals.
Cardiologist at St Dominics Hospital in East London, Dr Dave Kettles has revealed that South African state hospitals have on average one cardiologist for 26 000 people.
“Some patients who get put on a waiting list for a heart transplant die before they get a transplant because of the low availability of donor organs,” says Kettles.
