People with disabilities flag their grievances about SA's healthcare system
Eyewitness News interviewed several people with disabilities from different backgrounds about their experiences accessing healthcare in South Africa.
FILE: The Themba regional hospital in Mpumalanga closed its doors temporarily after clashes between staff and angry residents. Picture: © Antonio Diaz/ 123rf.com
JOHANNESBURG – In December 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) published an article titled “A quest for dignified healthcare for women with disabilities” about Coumba Ndiaye, a disability activist and municipal councillor in Dakar, Senegal.
The story unpacks how four healthcare centres refused to help her deliver her baby due polio that she was diagnosed with at birth.
The WHO report on health equity for persons with disabilities outlines 40 key actions for countries to take to strengthen their health systems and reduce health inequities for persons with disabilities.
The report mentions three interventions that all governments and health sector partners can implement.
Governments and health sector partners must consider health equity for persons with disabilities in all health sector actions. They can also include persons with disabilities in decision-making processes, and monitor how persons with disabilities are reached and benefit from health sector actions.
Ndiaye's story makes one wonder what kind of healthcare access people with disabilities have in South Africa.
Mbalenhle Nkhumeleni is a T-4 paraplegic, which means she has complete injury of her spinal nerves at the T-4 bone. She said the disability bathrooms at her local clinic were used as storerooms, and that using examination beds was impossible for her.
"Firstly, not all public health facilities actually cater for people with different types of disabilities. In my case, for example, the bathrooms are used as storage for cleaning materials or there are actually not available. The beds are so high that one can't adjust them which makes being examined tricky. I doubt that a person with a hearing impairment would be able to have access to an interpreter,” said Nkhumeleni about her community clinic.
Senior administrative assistant at Wits Disability Rights Unit Mx Tish Morpheus Geddes said both public and private healthcare systems were inaccessible to PWD’s. There are no South African Sign Language (SASL) interpreters in medical facilities, leading to sensitive medical information needing to be divulged to a friend or family member who has to ‘interpret’.
Lifts are also broken, a situation which is worsened by load shedding.
“Stock-outs of key medications needed by patients with specific disabilities that are chronic illnesses were worsened by COVID-19. Lithium, which is used to treat bipolar disorder, was unavailable nationally at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown,” said Geddes.
The senior administrative assistant said a lack of awareness around different disabilities, including comorbid disabilities and ableism, can impact a patient’s care.
“Comprehensive services have been inaccessible. For instance, you're not given options, but it's dictated to you what you should use for contraceptives. And being an individual with a disability, how dare you question what's a norm for others,” said the founder of disability NPO Enabled Enlightenment, Thato Mphuthi.
Geddes points out that the lack of medical professionals and administrators in healthcare facilities who lived with disabilities themselves or felt comfortable disclosing these disabilities, could contribute to the way PWDs are treated.
“I think healthcare facilities need to look at their employee's attitudes before they hire them. Some employees don't give us the help we need, they can even jump you and help the person next to you because of how you look. They should consider a trial or assessment before they hire employees,” said Boitshoko Motaung, who has bilateral Blount virus. Blount’s disease is a disorder of the growth plates in the bones around the knee.
The Constitution protects the rights and human dignity of all South Africans, including people with disabilities. Furthermore, it prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantees the rights of people with disabilities to equality, non-discrimination, and human dignity.
“I think these issues can be changed by implementing Batho Pele principles and helping disabled people, elderly people with helping pregnant women first and then help other patients, because it’s really uncomfortable to sit for hours - especially if you are really sick, and you don’t have anywhere else to go for a service,” said 2022 Miss Wheelchair SA, Tamelyn Bock.
Batho Pele Means "People First". The Batho Pele White Paper is national government's white paper for transforming public service delivery. It is about giving good customer service to the users of government services and is required to be practiced by all public servants.