Most South Africans depend on the public health system but many issues prevent people from accessing the facilities, says a report.
|||Cape town - Most South Africans depend on the public health system, but long queues, medicine shortages and poor staff attitudes prevent many from accessing the facilities, says a Stats SA report.
The title of the report is: “Use of health facilities and levels of health conditions in South Africa: findings from the General Household Survey 2011”.
It analysed how health facilities were used; satisfaction levels; why people did not use the nearest health facilities; medical aid coverage; and the means of transport people used to get to health centres.
It was found 61.2 percent of the population used public clinics when they needed treatment, while 9.5 percent went to public hospitals, 2 percent went to private hospitals and 24.3 percent to private doctors.
More than a third did not use the health facilities nearest to them and preferred to use private health services.
About 16 percent, citing long queues, did not use the facilities closest to their homes. Eleven percent did not do so because the drugs they needed were not available, 6.8 percent preferred public health facilities, while 3.5 percent said rude staff deterred them from seeking help from nearest facilities.
Almost 5 percent went to facilities that were far away as those closest to their homes were not on medical aid list of facilities.
In the Western Cape, 81 percent of people said they were satisfied with the heath care they received.
People were most satisfied in Limpopo, and least satisfied in KwaZulu-Natal.
About 47.4 percent walked to health facilities, 22 percent used private transport, and 29 percent used public transport. It was found that 67.5 percent of South Africans chose to self-medicate when ill, rather than consult a health worker. Just 4.3 percent said it was too expensive.
People in the Western Cape and Gauteng had the highest levels of medical aid cover, and Limpopo the lowest.
Communicable diseases such as tuberculosis were more common among black South Africans, whereas non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and asthma were more prevalent among the Indian population.
Statistician-General Pali Lehohla said the latest statistics reflected a South Africa whose inequities were along racial lines.
He said the latest report should prompt people to think about the health of the nation.
Municipal managers, provinces and policymakers would from now on “know better” about the challenges facing their districts.
Lehohla said black South Africans continued to live in less privileged provinces and remained disadvantaged in terms of access to health care services.
sipokazi.fokazi@inl.co.za
Cape Argus