Durban – With the increasing cost of health care, patients said that they were happy with the level of medical treatment they received from state hospitals in the greater Durban area.
Speaking to the Independent Media outside the RK Khan Hospital in Chatsworth and the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital in Cato Manor, patients said that they were treated kindly and professionally by hospital staff.
However, opposition parties are calling for improvements to be made to create a more efficient health-care system.
Thokozo Mkhize,39, of Marianhill, said she was treated “like a queen” during her stay at RK Khan Hospital. Mkhize had recently given birth and was visiting the hospital with her 2-week old son for a routine check-up.
An elderly couple from Chatsworth, both of whom were in their 70’s, said that they have been receiving treatment at RK Khan for more than 40 years and had no complaints.
The woman was there to get blood pressure medication which she usually picks up at the ABH centre just up the road.
Anton Mnganga, a 55-year-old Port Shepstone resident who travelled over an hour to get to Albert Luthuli, said he was very pleased with the treatment he received. Mnganga, who was accompanied by his daughter, was visiting the hospital for kidney and high blood pressure treatment.
Peter Bekumuzi, 64, from Pietermaritzburg, who had a skin condition, said he was pleased with the treatment he had been receiving at Albert Luthuli since October.
Bekumuzi said he waited 3 years before he got referred to Albert Luthuli.
A pair of siblings, who declined to be named, said they “have had a great experience” at Albert Luthuli since 2014. The sister, a Newlands West resident who was visiting the hospital with her sick brother, said the staff were friendly and helpful.
The only issue she and many others at both RK Khan and Albert Luthuli had was the long wait they endured before they could be referred to Albert Luthuli.
Albert Luthuli Hospital houses specialists, unlike the smaller district hospitals in the area, such RK Khan and Wentworth hospitals.
All of the patients who spoke to IOL said they had waited one to two years before they could get a referral to be admitted or treated at Albert Luthuli.
They also said they waited a long time to get appointments with doctors.
Livingston Jacob, 64, a heart patient from Chatsworth, said he did not like being treated by intern doctors who were not supervised by experienced doctors.
According to Dr Rishigen Viranna, the DA’s spokesperson on health, there have been numerous complaints about hospitals being understaffed.
“The main challenge being the lack of resources and the lack of maintenance. These lack of resources primarily come down to a lack of staffing at hospitals. There are many hospitals that have high vacancy rates when it comes to doctors and nurses, which leads to high waiting periods,” Viranna said.
The DA health official said the problem could be solved if the state created a more efficient supply chain system, as more resources would be freed, enabling the state to employ additional staff.
When asked about the irregularly long waiting periods patients have to undergo before getting referred to Albert Luthuli Hospital, national spokesperson for the Department of Health, Foster Mohale, said several factors were involved. These included “lack of sufficient health specialists in the public sector as compared to the private health sector, and non-functioning of health equipment in some facilities which results in long waiting periods for patients to undergo operations”.
“The government is working with the private sector to refer some of the patients to private hospitals. But these will be history once the National Health Insurance is implemented as it will enable ordinary members of the public to access affordable, accessible and quality health service irrespective of their socio-economic status,” Mohale said.
Local community activist and ADeC leader Visvin Reddy said he had received numerous complaints about RK Khan Hospital management. He said the ADeC would be visiting the hospitals to conduct site inspections.
“We intend to go out there and meet the hospital manager and senior management, just to have a look at the general state of the hospital, but from the reports that we are getting, we are very disappointed. Allegations include mismanagement and racism,” Reddy said.
IOL