“There are millions of South Africans who have gone through our hospitals, been treated, and sent home. For instance, every year, more than a million pregnant women go through our hospitals and deliver babies ... without any incidents. [But] we are not going to sit here and argue that we don’t have problems. We do have them.
“The public health-care system treats 86% of the population every year, which amounts to millions of people. These cases don’t appear in the media because the media highlights only negative stories. But [every now and then], we do [have incidents such as the one at Helen Joseph Hospital], which breaks our hearts, obviously. However, I am saying that [on the basis] of what happened at Helen Joseph, and in many other areas where something went wrong, we should not throw our hands in the air in despair,” he said in an interview with the SABC.
Motsoaledi said the majority of South Africans relied on public health-care facilities, and that the NHI would fix the unequal health system. Mismanagement occurred because good managers went where resources were. “We are busy trying to fix the system and the issue of universal health coverage. We want to equalise the system so we get good managers on both sides of it,” he said.
“That’s why we want to introduce universal health coverage, so that we cover everybody financially because, at the present moment, we are running a health-care system with parallel health-care systems, whereby one health-care system has huge resources for 14% of the population, while 86% of the population don’t have those resources. Helen Joseph is within that 86%, and that’s why we want to change that system.”
TimesLIVE
Health minister says clip was ‘disappointing’, but points out millions of patients receive ‘excellent treatment’ at public facilities
Helen Joseph hospital video doesn’t reflect our entire health-care system, says Aaron Motsoaledi
Journalist
Image: X/@GovernmentZA
Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has defended South Africa’s overall health system after a video of a manadmitted at Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg for two weeks complained about “uncaring” staff, saying he had lain for a day in his own faeces at the state facility.
The video, which has gone viral, shows broadcaster Thomas “Tom London” Holmes complaining about the treatment he was receiving from health practitioners, saying patients were treated like “cockroaches”.
The video also shows the poor infrastructure at the hospital.
While acknowledging the challenges faced by the public health system, Motsoaledi said the video was not a reflection of health-care generally in the country.
He argued that good work done by dedicated health-care professionals should not be overshadowed by isolated incidents. “It broke our hearts. It was quite disappointing. But under no [circumstances] are we going to condemn the whole public health-care system because of what happened at Helen Joseph.
WATCH | Gauteng health MEC defends treatment of viral patient who ‘lay in my faeces for a day’ at hospital
“There are millions of South Africans who have gone through our hospitals, been treated, and sent home. For instance, every year, more than a million pregnant women go through our hospitals and deliver babies ... without any incidents. [But] we are not going to sit here and argue that we don’t have problems. We do have them.
“The public health-care system treats 86% of the population every year, which amounts to millions of people. These cases don’t appear in the media because the media highlights only negative stories. But [every now and then], we do [have incidents such as the one at Helen Joseph Hospital], which breaks our hearts, obviously. However, I am saying that [on the basis] of what happened at Helen Joseph, and in many other areas where something went wrong, we should not throw our hands in the air in despair,” he said in an interview with the SABC.
Motsoaledi said the majority of South Africans relied on public health-care facilities, and that the NHI would fix the unequal health system. Mismanagement occurred because good managers went where resources were. “We are busy trying to fix the system and the issue of universal health coverage. We want to equalise the system so we get good managers on both sides of it,” he said.
“That’s why we want to introduce universal health coverage, so that we cover everybody financially because, at the present moment, we are running a health-care system with parallel health-care systems, whereby one health-care system has huge resources for 14% of the population, while 86% of the population don’t have those resources. Helen Joseph is within that 86%, and that’s why we want to change that system.”
TimesLIVE
The dire state of patient clinical care at some public health facilities is yet again receiving public attention. This after a video of a patient, Tom London, went viral, relating his experiences and alleged poor conditions at the Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg. London described the "atrocious facilities" and alleged that "the staff treated patients like cockroaches". The Gauteng Department of Health said that they are willing to subject London's clinical treatment to independent evaluation and also that infrastructure issues at its facilities have no effect on the treatment given to patients at the hospital. To talk more about this and the state of our public health facilities, we are joined virtually by the Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. For more news, visit sabcnews.com and #SABCNews on all Social Media platforms.
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