The way South Africa’s health sector is governed leaves hospitals exposed to corruption. Hospital chief executives are political appointments, and so are the people at the accountability bodies and regulators such as the Office of Health Standards Compliance that are set up to hold the execut.
In Zithulele, a rural Eastern Cape community where the collective fight against HIV/Aids was being won, the application of strict departmental policy has led to protests, fear and uncertainty as doctors and the community claim that it was harming patients and negatively affecting medical care..
‘We feel like the CEO has taken us 10 years back in 10 months,’ said a doctor of the conflict that has seen Zithulele Hospital’s status as an outstanding district hospital come into peril after the strict application of the Eastern Cape Department of Health’s policy brought conflict and.
At Zithulele Hospital, a rural Eastern Cape hospital that has become known for remarkable care, people without referral letters are sent away at the gates without being assessed and HIV and TB patients have been sent to ‘clinics that don’t have medications for these patients’. These are t.