A letter to doctors in our area

Anonymous writes:
On Thursday March 7 my husband had a quad bike accident at 17:00. His hands were badly injured and we suspected that one of his fingers was broken. It was then that we started to call some doctors in town.

We phoned a couple of doctors in both Burgersfort and Steelpoort without any answering our call. Only one doctor responded but he was unable to help us with X-rays.

We went to Platinum Health Clinic and they were willing to assist us with stitches but nothing more, so we decided to go to Lydenburg. We were told that the Medical Centre was our best option of getting hold of a doctor after hours.

We arrived there at about 19:00 and I contacted the emergency number. The doctor who answered said that he would not be able to help us since we needed X-rays as well.

We decided to drive to Mediclinic Nelspruit where my husband was admitted.

My question is, what are we supposed to do when our children get sick or get hurt after hours? Where do we go and who should we call or should we stop wasting our time and efforts and just drive straight to Nelspruit?

Is that our only option besides Dilokong Hospital? Why can’t this town get an emergency/after-hours service so that the people who have a medical aid can get the services they pay for? It is an absolute disgrace that the doctors of our town seem to only want to work normal office hours!

What should we do when we are confronted with an emergency which occurs after business hours? What if it was my child who was badly injured?

Should Dilokong Hospital be our only option? No, because I refuse! I have a medical aid.
Why do people of this town have to struggle to get hold of a doctor after hours? Do I need to drive 160 kilometres to the nearest private hospital just to get medical attention in order for someone to help.

Doctors of this town all took the same oath and they knew that when they became doctors that normal working hours would never apply to them.

My plea to doctors in this town is: Please come up with a solution to serve the community when they need them. We are not asking for free service, we are asking for a service that is our right. If the doctors cannot respond to an emergency call after hours why should we support them during working hours?

If that is the case I would rather drive all the way to Nelspruit in future without even wasting my valuable time on doctors of Burgersfort, Steelpoort and Lydenburg again.