WORK ON IMPROVING HEALTHCARE

  Sir,

I am not the kind of person who usually makes noise or criticizes government but I am forced to do so when service delivery becomes low and in the end badly affects the lives of the citizens of this country.

There have been reports about how most of the health centers and hospitals were faced with drug shortages and as has been the case in previous years, the nation was assured that the problem was being solved. The whole country knows that it is not the first time for sick persons to be sent back home because there is no medication.

Responsible

It has been happening for years and those responsible are always giving us the same excuse that suppliers have not been paid. Imagine diabetic patients being told to go elsewhere to get medication because public hospitals have not been able to get their supplies.

The truth is that there has been a decline in health services and this impacts directly on the quality of care received by patients. The inability to provide quality care by healthcare practitioners, including emergency medical treatments, makes it look like government does not care about the people in this country.

Suffer

When there is less health services, patients increasingly suffer from preventable illnesses associated with morbidity and mortality, not only because of the lack of essential basic services but also because the situation impacts negatively on the training of healthcare practitioners.

The patients who find that there is no medication at government hospitals do not have a choice but have to find money to purchase them at private pharmacies. Mind you, some of these patients come from poor backgrounds and do not have the money to do that. So where do you expect them to go?

Healthcare practitioners find themselves in a predicament as a result of this violation of patients’ rights to access health care by the health system itself. They are required by their codes to regard the health of their patients as of paramount importance.

Since the job is more like a calling, the nurses are expected not only to further the best interests and positive welfare of their patients, but also to advocate for the fulfillment of their patients’ rights in the face of a lack of resources. Government needs to stop singing the same song that the health sector is a priority but must show through actions like paying suppliers on time to ensure that medication is delivered.

There is also a need to work on improving the welfare of the nurses and everyone who work in these hospitals because when staff members are happy then they will do the job perfectly because you cannot expect a nurse who is stressed to treat a patient satisfactorily. We have had the problem of suppliers not being paid what is being owed to them and I believe now is the time for government to sit down and work on a strategy that will ensure that this does not happen again.

M Dlamini

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