AfriForum tackles flaws in healthcare system: Tell your story 

16 April 2019

The civil rights organisation AfriForum launched a campaign on 16 April 2019 to expose the shocking flaws of the healthcare system and to increase accountability in this sector. AfriForum invites the public to submit their stories of poor service delivery and treatment in hospitals and clinics to the organisation to be included in a comprehensive report.

Dr Eugene Brink, Strategic Advisor for Community Affairs at AfriForum, says that the organisation is increasingly inundated by complaints of poor treatment and gross negligence at especially state institutions. “These complaints vary from people being treated by unqualified doctors to personnel shouting at patients, treating them roughly and eventually maybe even causing their deaths.”

AfriForum realises that this is a widely-spread problem that requires urgent but ongoing attention.  The report will therefore be discussed with the Minister of Health, as well as with relevant local governments. It will also be submitted to the World Health Organization. Apart from the awareness that it will create, it will also serve as indisputable proof that the government’s intended National Health Insurance simply cannot work. It is the start of an ongoing, multi-facetted process.

Brink says there are indeed areas of excellence in the public health sector, and many employees try their best despite great challenges, but that corruption, incompetence and a lack of accountability unfortunately reign supreme. “The public sector is increasingly paralysed by systemic, financial, labour and political problems – and the public eventually suffers the most. At the same time, government bullies the private sector, which renders the vast majority of world-class services.”  

AfriForum wants to hear your story: Visit www.afriforum.co.za/share-story-health-report/ to share your story with us.

Issued by Eugene Brink, Strategic Advisor: Community Affairs, AfriForum, 16 April 2019