One of the government’s stated aims is to bring back and protect people’s dignity. This noble aim is sometimes defeated by the actions of civil servants. They sometimes treat people as if they are doing them a favour. What is worse is the impunity with which they do all of this. South Africans have got many stories to tell and I just want to focus on two of these relating to the public health system.
The first one is about a cousin of mine who went to the Phola Park clinic on the 13th March 2009. She went to the clinic because she was not feeling well as she had a fever, her head was aching, her eyes were watery and her nose was blocked. They ran tests and she was told to go wait for her turn to see the nurse.
When her turn came the nurse asked her what the problem was while she was looking at her folder. As she was getting into detail with what was wrong with her, the nurse asked her to open her mouth and she complied. She took one look at her from a distance and told her to follow her to an isolated room at the back. The nurse left her there promising to be back to attend to her. After the nurse had left the room someone approached her and proceeded with asking questions about HIV. This person told her that she was once young and irresponsible like my cousin. This offended my cousin as she felt that she was being accused of something and she told the lady that no one has asked her consent to be tested for HIV. All the counselor could say was people uses different “working patterns”. She proceeded with talk about HIV/AIDS without getting her consent on the matter and another nurse came to draw her blood for the test.
“While we waited for my results, the counselor and the nurse conversed. The second nurse was asking the counselor if I said yes to get tested. The counselor looked at me and did not respond. The nurse carried on with their conversation talking about me as if I was not there!”, says cousin. The results came and when she tested negative she was sent back to the Professional Nurse that sent her for the test without her permission. My cousin communicated to the nurse that she felt violated because her permission was not asked. The nurse’s response was that she forgot that she can speak English so well. This comment could be attributed to the fact that the nurse is serving a largely Xhosa-speaking community whilst she does not speak the language. Her solution to this language challenge seems to be communicating as less possible as she can.
What is also shocking for me is the attitude of the nurse in violating all we are taught about stigmatization of HIV and also the process of voluntary counseling and testing. I have heard a lot of complaints from people who go to the clinics in Mbekweni. People claim that they are made to feel like dirt when they visit these government facilities by people who have a duty to be courteous to them.
Another case is that of a woman who was an intern in my department when I was still in the Cape Winelands District Municipality. She fell pregnant and was later informed by the public hospital in Stellenbosch that she has lost the baby. She was given medication that was meant to assist in flushing out the dead foetus. She tells me, without going in to details, that she gave birth to a baby that was alive. This led to her spending many weeks at Tygerberg Hospital with the baby. The hospital just shrugged this off as just another minor incident. The person who had this happening to her was left traumatized. She feels strongly that someone must be held accountable for how she has been treated throughout this process. I agree that in both cases rights were violated and we can not go on boasting about a good constitution when our people do not feel protected in their daily dealings with public health institutions.
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