Patients must have endless patience to get treatment

Our poor, ordinary people cannot wait for the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI) because the current health system has been brutal towards us.

This was clear from the fact that everywhere the health portfolio committee chairperson, Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, and his team went during their current public hearings on the NHI, there is one refrain from the people: the insurance must be implemented as soon as possible.

Among the places they visited in the Eastern Cape last week was King William’s Town, a former colonial outpost that I believe should be called Steve Biko City after the locally-born hero who died at the hands of his oppressors.

But let me not digress from today’s topic: Grey Hospital in Alexandra Street, King William’s Town.

During one of my travels to my home province, I visited Grey Hospital – which, like its namesake in KwaZulu-Natal, was named after colonial master Sir George Grey – to see a sick friend.

I was hurt by what I saw. As I was passing by to the wards, I was struck by the long queues of patients waiting to be assisted by staff.

I stopped to murmur a few questions to some of the waiting patients about what was happening. There was a general outcry among the gatvol people about the poor service they received from the hospital daily and the longest time they had to wait to get help.

They lamented the poor order in the queue system, forcing them to wait long hours and even days.

I found a couple who were, on the second day, waiting merely to be informed about a scan or blood test results because staff were too busy to help them to translate the information in their folders.

On one occasion during my chance visit, nursing staff had an argument with a doctor, who decided to jump everybody and start at the back of the queue. The doctor refused to listen to the nurses who asked him to deal with patients left over from the previous day first. Apparently this is a daily occurrence at Grey.

It became clear to me the doctors are more of a problem than the nurses at the facility.

Agitated patients told me that you can’t visit Grey and expect to finish on the same day. You need to be patient. They say one is lucky to get medication, because there is always a shortage.

I doubt if Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba is aware of the goings-on at Grey Hospital. As someone I once worked with in our political structures at Mdantsane, I know her for not liking mediocrity. That’s why, when once I led a campaign for her to become a councillor at Buffalo City in those early days, it was easy to convince people she was the best candidate to represent them.

Strangely, as our poor people continue to endure such traumatic experiences daily, the hospital is situated a mere two kilometres from the seat of power in Bhisho – where there is the provincial legislature and the provincial administration. Besides, it is a stone’s throw from the ANC provincial head office, Calata House, on the same Alexandra Street.

Our politicians in Bhisho and at Calata House must remember that what is happening at Grey Hospital is not the freedom we struggled for.

Eric Naki

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