| Submit your comments on this article |
| Africa Subsaharan |
| Hospital X-ray outrages and the joys of socialized medicine |
| 2015-08-07 |
| [iol] Johannesburg - An elderly Joburg man was left speechless when he was told he'd have to wait eight months before he could have his knee X-rayed at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. But, after The Star's intervention, Bernard Price, 86, was to have his left knee X-rayed on Thursday. Price, 86, had been admitted to the hospital at the weekend, to be treated for fluid on the knee. He was discharged and told to go to the hospital's X-ray department to determine what line of treatment would be required. Price, who uses two walking sticks to get around -- albeit slowly -- is the building superintendent of the Joubert Park block of flats he lives in. Without urgent treatment of his knee problem, he is afraid he may not be able to carry out his duties, which involve moving about to sort out the needs of the tenants in the building. "I can't get around like I should. It was brought on by a fall about 10 days ago outside the lifts at the building. When I was told they couldn't take the X-ray till May 6, 2016, I was disappointed because I am fairly active, and from what I can glean, it looks like I need a knee replacement," he said. But X-rays aren't the only things one has to wait a long time for at Charlotte Maxeke. In June, it was revealed in a written response by Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu to DA MPL Jack Bloom's questions in the legislature that 2 246 patients were on waiting lists for surgery at the hospital, of whom 1 500 need a kidney transplant. "I understand and know there are waiting lists... if I had cash available, I would go to another hospital, but I don't. And I thought, if this is what's happening to me, it must be happening to others who need X-rays," Price said. He added he was treated well at a hospital ward over the weekend, but that treatment depended on which ward one went to. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 Even better than the V.A. |
| Posted by: Jeremiah Glump3926 2015-08-07 21:01 |
| #2 Well, technically, pre-Obamacare. From the people who screamed through the 60s and 70s for Black Majority Rule(tm) in South Africa but today scream for Diversity(tm) aka End White Majority Rule in America. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-08-07 08:40 |
| #1 South Africa has Obamacare?!?! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-08-07 02:08 |