Issued by Ministry of Health
12 October 2006
Johannesburg Hospital, voted the best hospital in greater Joburg area by the readers of The Star in 2004, has demonstrated once again that it is one of the best hospitals in the country when it stood the test of sensational journalism riding on the bandwagon of opportunistic opposition politicsArticle for the Star
After the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang was admitted to a section meant to attract medical aid patients to the hospital (Folateng) last week, the Democratic Alliance was up in arms saying Tshabalala-Msimang should have been admitted to a general ward. (Jack Bloom's letter to the editor - October 10)
Pushing the same line, ETV demanded access to the hospital in order to film the section where the Minister was accommodated and the general wards. As hospitals are public institutions, the hospital chief executive officer said ETV team was free to do its work.
I understood that the intention was to prove the DA hypothesis that Tshabalala-Msimang was accommodated in a posh environment of a private ward while the rest of the patients were being treated under "appalling conditions" of the wards for the general public.
ETV reporter and photographer came on Sunday (October 08) morning and started by filming the Folateng section. In an interview, I explained that the same team of doctors working at Folateng also the same service to the rest of the hospital.
The section was established to raise revenue from medical aid patients and use it to improve the rest of the hospital. The trend in the expenditure of medical schemes indicates that much of the health resources go into paying medical specialist and private hospital fees.
The public health sector is the main loser in the current spending pattern as public hospitals have to absorb all those patients most often exhaust their medical aid benefits in private health sector. About a year ago, the private sector spent R43 billion on servicing only about 15% of the population (7 million people covered by medical schemes) while the state used R33.2 billion to care for the rest of the population (38 million people).
The crew moved on to the general section of the hospital. A matron in charge directed the team to a ward that was recently renovated, partly as a result of the revenue raised at Folateng.
The crew took some few shots and objected, saying the ward does not resemble the rest of the hospital. The matron walked them over to ward 491, which has not been improved.
Personally, I was amazed by the environment we found there since I am always bombarded with allegations of low staff morale and other issues that paint a grim image of the public health sector.
The staff has turned the wall behind the reception desk into "a wall of fame" where they paste pictures of memorable moments at the hospital. The opposite wall hangs framed certificates demonstrating various academic achievements of the ward staff. At the corner is a notice board where all the thank you cards and letters from former patients are pasted. I wished I could use them to flood the letter's pages of newspapers.
The crew took pictures of the ward and bathrooms spending noticeably less time than they had spent building a picture profile of the Folateng earlier on. They left quickly while the matron was still offering other site visits.
Were they leaving because of the resource challenges at their station (the pair was the only team available for Gauteng that weekend and had to also cover a prominent ANC press conference that afternoon) or were they disappointed with pictures that were disproving the story idea? I pondered.
The prime time news that evening came and the story was profiled in the opening headlines as "another public relations gone bad" for the Health Minister.
When the story was finally ran almost 20 minutes into the 30 minutes news bulletin, it did not have any of the pictures taken at Johannesburg Hospital that morning. Instead, file pictures of the Minister at a press meeting in August were used with a voice over stating the original story idea of anonymous people that are angry over the health minister's admission to Folateng while the public wards were "in shambles".
One day, we will all learn that undue criticism of democratically elected public representatives - even at the time when they have taken ill - is not the only means to gain more viewers and voters. Not that we expected well-wishes from ETV's editor in chief or the leader of the so-called official opposition, but keeping quite where there is nothing to mourn about does not cause any harm.
Our gratitude goes to all staff at Johannesburg General Hospital for their determination to provide quality service despite many challenges. Your patients appreciate.
Sibani Mngadi
Spokesperson for the Minister of Health
0827720161