BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT CALL FOR TRANSFORMATION OF HEALTH SYSTEM
STATEMENT OF THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT-UNITED YOUTH GUARD ON THE CALL FOR RADICAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM AMID THE COVID-19 CRISIS
12 April 2020
One of major factors that the South African government probably considered in taking a decision on the extension of lockdown is the current state of the healthcare system in the country. South Africa’s healthcare system is in such a shambolic and dysfunctional state that citizens refer to some hospitals and clinics as Panado dispensaries because they are so ill-equipped that they prescribe Panado for every illness. Hundreds of extremely ill people are returned daily from hospitals because of the shortage of beds. The logjam and poor quality of healthcare in the hospitals result in hundreds of people dying daily of treatable and curable diseases. There is also the reality that multitudes of working-class people in the rural communities still travel long distances to access healthcare and other basic services. Needless to mention that health disasters are likely to have devastating effects on people whose poor incomes and livelihoods are such that they are already struggling to access to quality healthcare and other basic necessities and social services. This situation implies that South Africa’s healthcare system will not be able to cope with the increase in the daily number of people infected with the Corona virus. It also means that the country cannot afford the situation where the rate and speed of infections extremely exceeds the number of recoveries and the quality of available treatment. As we speak, the government is in a dangerous position of overreliance on the suspicious generosity of the private sector for provision of basic things such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The government also depends heavily on private donation for resources needed to mount programmes that ameliorate the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic on the population. The above facts indicate that over and above the short-term and medium plans to address Covid 19 and other health challenges, the country needs a radical programme aimed at the transformation of the healthcare system. Such a programme can only be workable if it is based on the understanding that the improvement of the income, livelihoods, endowments and assets of households, skills development programmes and the enhancement of capabilities such as literacy and education of individuals is a critical prerequisite to addressing the structural and behavioural barriers to healthcare. Such a programme must consider the enhancement of levels of food security, access to land, decent and habitable housing and adequate sanitation, and the provision of decent educational, arts, recreational and sports facilities as critical aspects of creating an enabling environment for people’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. The programme must be based on the recognition that the need for state provisioning of free and adequate healthcare cannot be divorced from the need for land redistribution, state provision of decent and habitable housing, free and quality education, free water and electricity, and state provision of safe and reliable public transport. A programme aimed at enhancing the quality of healthcare and at averting health disasters can only be sustainable if it directed at simultaneously addressing the systemic, structural, institutional and behavioural barriers to healthcare. Such a programme must consider the health impact of spatial and socioeconomic arrangements that entrench social stratification based on racial, class and gender hierarchies.
This necessitates a programme that tackles how inequitable access to quality healthcare still reflects and entrench racial, class and gender disparities. It calls for a programme that acknowledges that the behaviour aspects that fosters disease cannot be divorced from the systemic, structural and institutional arrangements that does the same. It calls for National Health Policy that recognise that significant transformation of the healthcare system requires significant transforming of the socioeconomic system.
Issued by the Black Consciousness Movement-United Youth Guard
Contacts:
Lehlohonolo Makhele: 078 057 5969
E-mail: LehlohonoloM56@gmail.com
Benjamin Chisari: +27 66 172 8026
E-mail: chisaribenjamin9@gmail.com
12 April 2020
One of major factors that the South African government probably considered in taking a decision on the extension of lockdown is the current state of the healthcare system in the country. South Africa’s healthcare system is in such a shambolic and dysfunctional state that citizens refer to some hospitals and clinics as Panado dispensaries because they are so ill-equipped that they prescribe Panado for every illness. Hundreds of extremely ill people are returned daily from hospitals because of the shortage of beds. The logjam and poor quality of healthcare in the hospitals result in hundreds of people dying daily of treatable and curable diseases. There is also the reality that multitudes of working-class people in the rural communities still travel long distances to access healthcare and other basic services. Needless to mention that health disasters are likely to have devastating effects on people whose poor incomes and livelihoods are such that they are already struggling to access to quality healthcare and other basic necessities and social services. This situation implies that South Africa’s healthcare system will not be able to cope with the increase in the daily number of people infected with the Corona virus. It also means that the country cannot afford the situation where the rate and speed of infections extremely exceeds the number of recoveries and the quality of available treatment. As we speak, the government is in a dangerous position of overreliance on the suspicious generosity of the private sector for provision of basic things such as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The government also depends heavily on private donation for resources needed to mount programmes that ameliorate the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic on the population. The above facts indicate that over and above the short-term and medium plans to address Covid 19 and other health challenges, the country needs a radical programme aimed at the transformation of the healthcare system. Such a programme can only be workable if it is based on the understanding that the improvement of the income, livelihoods, endowments and assets of households, skills development programmes and the enhancement of capabilities such as literacy and education of individuals is a critical prerequisite to addressing the structural and behavioural barriers to healthcare. Such a programme must consider the enhancement of levels of food security, access to land, decent and habitable housing and adequate sanitation, and the provision of decent educational, arts, recreational and sports facilities as critical aspects of creating an enabling environment for people’s physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. The programme must be based on the recognition that the need for state provisioning of free and adequate healthcare cannot be divorced from the need for land redistribution, state provision of decent and habitable housing, free and quality education, free water and electricity, and state provision of safe and reliable public transport. A programme aimed at enhancing the quality of healthcare and at averting health disasters can only be sustainable if it directed at simultaneously addressing the systemic, structural, institutional and behavioural barriers to healthcare. Such a programme must consider the health impact of spatial and socioeconomic arrangements that entrench social stratification based on racial, class and gender hierarchies.
This necessitates a programme that tackles how inequitable access to quality healthcare still reflects and entrench racial, class and gender disparities. It calls for a programme that acknowledges that the behaviour aspects that fosters disease cannot be divorced from the systemic, structural and institutional arrangements that does the same. It calls for National Health Policy that recognise that significant transformation of the healthcare system requires significant transforming of the socioeconomic system.
Issued by the Black Consciousness Movement-United Youth Guard
Contacts:
Lehlohonolo Makhele: 078 057 5969
E-mail: LehlohonoloM56@gmail.com
Benjamin Chisari: +27 66 172 8026
E-mail: chisaribenjamin9@gmail.com
Good
ReplyDeleteThis is a great way for Black youth to stand up and direct truth to power. We cannot remain silent whilr money is being recycled by billionaires in SA yet nothing substantial goes into real social services or bettering the plight of our people.
ReplyDeleteWhen we paid R8 for our cards it made sure hospitals can run smoothly. We are ok to buy airtime and data but refuse to pay for basic services. Those billionaires recycle what they worked for. We need to work for what we want it wont come from the state
ReplyDeleteYes but not everyone has work.
ReplyDelete