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KEEP NATION ALIVE!

09/01/2019 01:11:00 By Thabiso Dlamini

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IDLH is an acronym which stands for Immediately Dangerous to Life and Health, and it describes a precarious situation that is life-threatening if kept unabated.

This perfectly sums up the situation that has become of our health system in Eswatini, which for the most part, has our public hospitals quickly turning into a death sentence for the public that depends on them.

The first priority of any government is to keep its people alive by ensuring that no person dies in queues or in a hospital bed, waiting to get treatment for a perfectly curable disease. All roads are supposed to be headed to a First World status for Eswatini and so it is high time our government starts taking us seriously as human beings who deserve better treatment, especially when it comes to our health and precious lives.

Most government hospitals are in a state of disrepair: the situation is so bad that rats are living large in these hospitals; our referral Mbabane Government Hospital is short-staffed with limited medical supplies and has an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) that is quickly turning into a noose for all the patients who need serious life support.

More and more of emaSwati are being diagnosed with kidney disease and a significant number of these patients end up dead waiting for a slot for renal dialysis. When our hospitals run out of medical gloves, it shows that government has completely lost the plot. The nation is dying at the hands of our government hospitals, not just of chronic illnesses, but also of a long list of curable diseases. Something’s got to give!

Government needs to gain a fresh perspective on its priorities on where it needs to unapologetically spend money for the benefit of all. It is frustrating to think about the money pit and fuss that has become of Free Primary Education when there are serious priorities that could be taken care of, that is, the people dying in our hospitals that cannot even get a basic Panado pill to manage their pain. Free Primary Education was never priced right and the withdrawal of the European Union in funding this programme is just adding salt to a long expired wound.

Why does government keep fussing on things that do not matter and overlook the things that could keep emaSwati alive to see the promised First World nation? Even within the health sector, there is a lot of money that is being thrown at programmes that have long expired. We also have a lot of non-government organisations still trapped in a frenzy of HIV/AIDS capacity-building programmes and other good for nothing conferences that are pushing pressing health priorities to the curb.

It is true; government is free to spend money out of the G-wallet as it pleases. The fiscal crunch has necessitated some cuts of key government-funded services, but be that as it may, government should not tamper with funding directed to our public hospitals.

There are a lot of emaSwati who cannot afford medical insurance to take advantage of private clinics and hospitals inside and outside of Eswatini. Even with some of the specialized medical equipment, such as renal dialysis, some of the private clinics depend on government’s major hospitals.

When government cuts support to our public hospitals it means it does not value the lives of emaSwati. In other words, there is a grand scheme of things that the G-wallet has to keep funding at the expense of emaSwati who, for the most part, do not matter until they have to cough up money in the form of tax.
How many of Eswatini’s public officials use the country’s public hospitals? Many of them flock the private health care system and have high benefit medical aid that can secure them hospitals beds in South Africa for an unlimited number of days.

Government has to recognise and acknowledge that Eswatini’s public health care system is in a crisis and it must spring to action to restore the health situation. The simple way out of this situation is to make the public health care system a priority in terms of money and resources. If people have to think twice about going to hospital, and when they do eventually work up the courage to go but end up not receiving proper care, the country needs to stop everything else and refocus all energies and money on keeping its people alive.

Government should focus on maintaining the basic guarantees, which is food in the stomach and keeping people alive and healthy. Certainly, there are a lot of government-funded projects/programmes the country can easily do away with to avoid the IDLH situation which has befallen Eswatini’s health sector. Government, please keep your people alive.