Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi huffs and puffs about offering quality health care to all South Africans.
In normal ANC speak and following the credo that we must all be equal and have the same (quality) service, he is pushing for a national health scheme.
What is guaranteed is an additional tax will be levied to pay for this mammoth bureaucratic nightmare (and the usual associated fraud) and health care services will not improve.
So often we read and hear about horrific experiences in many government hospitals – the latest being the deaths of the newborn twins in Tambo Memorial.
Motsoaledi’s sole focus should surely be to ensure public health facilities offer the best service possible: why has KwaZulu-Natal no cancer treatment at any of its government hospitals, where were you when the Esidemini tragedy was taking place, the Free State hospitals appear to be in dire straits, similarly in Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga?
Should deaths in hospitals, owing to gross negligence and poor care, not be classified as murder and the law must then take its course?
When the public service fails, private enterprise steps in. We’ve seen the demise of the postal service, railway transport (especially heavy goods), schools and hospitals.
It would be great if we had alternatives for the supply of electricity. (Outsurance did a fantastic job of speedily repairing potholes.)
Who can we blame for the crash and burning of the above? No use whining about the cost of private medical care when your public health service offers a terrible, risky service.
So Minister, do your job and concentrate on improving the public health service. Every time there is a failure out, trot the excuses.
A national health scheme is not the answer for general gross incompetence.
