Healthcare Challenges in South Africa
Added on 2020-11-23
15 Pages4120 Words439 Views
Disease and DisordersPublic and Global HealthHealthcare and ResearchPolitical Science
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Poverty and Access to healthcare in South Africa
Table of ContentsIssue............................................................................................................................................................3Background.................................................................................................................................................4Current status...............................................................................................................................................6Key considerations......................................................................................................................................9Options......................................................................................................................................................10Conclusion and recommendation...............................................................................................................11References.................................................................................................................................................14Appendix...................................................................................................................................................16
Issue Access to health care is all about the timely use of personal health services so that outcometowards a better living can be attained (Khamisa and et.al., 2015). The present briefing paper hasbeen prepared on access to quality healthcare services within South Africa. This study is veryimportant for the reader as getting access to quality health care services is a basic right of allpeople but this situation is not present in South Africa. It will further assist the local governmentto assess the issues that are present in health care system so that proper steps can be taken bythem. BackgroundWhy poverty is prevalent in South AfricaOne of the most important issues for people in Africa has been of poverty as during theapartheidyears the blacks were forced to live in rural areas that had the absence of basicamenities, no land, lack of opportunities etc. that could have allowed them to live a decent life. Itis since those times that the poorest of poor are living in extreme poverty (Rogerson, 2018). Figure 1 Slum dwellers in Africa(Source: Kirk, 2016)
The figure given above further suggests that there are a large number of slum dwellers withinSouth Africa whose number has not decreased since the year 1990. Although other areas inAfrica has shown a huge decline in slum dwellers. How poverty affects health careIt is beyond doubt that a huge relation exists between poverty and better access to health carefacilities. For 100s of years it has been found that people who belong to lowest socio-economiclevels in any nation have got higher death as well as illness rates (Mayosi and Benatar, 2014).This correlation has been observed throughout the world regardless of whether death occurred onaccount of infectious or non-infectious diseases and how the socio-economic position of theperson was measured. The impact of this relation is particular apparent in South Africa becausethere is a presence of widespread poverty in the nation. The history of denial to proper healthcare in South Africa goes back to early 1960s when the nation was grappled with apartheidpolicies and had become quite isolated from the rest of the world (Marten and et.al. 2014). There is also a presence of Social – cultural factors that have affected health care in SouthAfrica. Due to apartheid the black people in the nation were considered inferior in all contextsand were not given a chance to come out of poverty issue. This forced them to live withindisorganized homes, made children homeless which then led to increased poverty cases therebyleading to less access to health care facilities (Churchyard and et.al. 2014). There was also asegregation of health care facilities during the time of 1880s on a racial basis. But then the healthact launched in 1919 gave responsibility of curative health care to 4 provinces while preventativecare to local bodies (Poku, 2017). Then came the Gluckman Commission during 1942 to 1944which had made an attempt to redirect the health care system. The vision was to start a chain ofcommunity health centers but then as soon as Nationalist Party came into power during 1948there was a rejection of Gluckman recommendations entirely. Then came the collapse of theRand currency of South Africa in the year 1989 and a repeal against apartheid law started in allparts of the nations followed by conduction of free election in 1994 (Khamisa and et.al., 2015).This brought a change in the situation when first democratic elections were held and apartheidsystem was brought to an end by African National Congress under the leadership of Dr NelsonMandela. The party established five main programs which focused on meeting the basic needs;developing human resources; building economy; democratization of state and society as well as
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