READER LETTER | NGOs concern for foreign patients misplaced

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I have just read an article about the concerns raised by international NGO Doctors without  Borders about allegations that foreigners are turned away from accessing healthcare from Tshwane District Hospital by South African protesters.

I will not go into the merits or demerits of the conduct of those protesting the unfair exploitation of a healthcare system that fails to offer its own citizens an acceptable standard of healthcare because of extreme underfunding that has been going on for years, due to the poor state of the country’s financial standing; bankruptcy.

Many horror stories have been documented in almost all the newspapers in this country, so not a single person who reads papers, or listens to the TV news channels and radio can claim not to know about the serious underfunding healthcare services have been receiving for years, resulting in poor health outcomes, leading to billions of rand in medical negligence claims.

The purpose of this email is to seek advice from all those who continue to voice their concerns about foreigners being denied medical care, when these very concerns have long been raised with the respective foreign governments whose citizens continue to exploit and collapse our overstretched human and material resources with dire consequences for our health system. A real sound advice concerning this problem will be appreciated from anyone who has a better plan to stop the influx of illegal immigrants to SA, which has had a devastating effect on our economy.

At the heart of this problem is the stubborn disregard of the demarcation of the continent into various countries that was meant to create order in the management and administration of all services necessary for the health of each country.

Cometh Dube-Makholwa, Midrand

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