Need action and not just more talks

E-mail your letter to The Herald

IT is sad to note that health services, education and social welfare continue to deteriorate in their service delivery to the poor people of not only our metro, but also the province of the Eastern Cape. Recently, the plight and frustration of the doctors working strenuously without much-needed support in the hospital complex has appeared in the media ("Rebel doctors’ hospital rescue plan”, June 26).

We note with dismay their voicing of these shortcomings, leading them to breaking "a so-called code of conduct” in their profession. How would the public to whom these doctors render services know that they are in such dire need?

Why do MEC Sicelo Gqobana and Health Department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo want this situation covered up with closed eyes and deaf ears? Does that fulfil the mandate given to them by the voters?

Politically we know for a fact, as members of the Port Elizabeth Hospital Complex board, that our poor people, particularly from the northern and southern suburbs of our city, wait for more than three hours and sometimes days before they are attended to (at hospitals). Surely, this is not what democracy is about.

A government that puts its people at heart and prioritises their needs more than personal gain and the huge salaries of a gravy train is blessed by God. We have long been talking behind closed doors on the issue of our three hospitals, Provincial, Livingstone and Dora Nginza, and no action has been coming forth.

All we have is talks about talks. The threat of disciplinary action against doctors who have let the community of the city know of the situation is unacceptable and regrettable.

What should happen is that the Bhisho Department of Health engages us through the chairman of the hospital complex, Mia Loonat, so that we bring a lasting solution to the health problems of staffing and smooth running of services in the complex.

Access to medicine, education and social services is the right of every citizen in a country God has blessed with democracy. People of this metro, pray, support our doctors and be vocal on the issue.

May the Almighty continue to pour out his blessings on us to the joy of the poor and oppressed.