27 October 2006
I am very glad that I have been discharged today after being in the hospital for the past three weeks.
I would like to express my appreciation to all the staff of the Johannesburg General Hospital for the high quality care that has been rendered to me.
When I was admitted, I was very ill. My gratitude goes to Professor Jeff Wing and his team for managing my condition in a professional manner.
This hospital has always been good to me in the past few occasions that I have used it, either as an in- or outpatient. As you may remember, I was once admitted to this hospital in 2003 with a bout of flu, which was complicated by my chronic asthma condition.
I hope that the medical team that attended to me during my admission renders the same quality of care to all other patients that are admitted to Johannesburg Hospital. As you may know, the same team of doctors working at the Folateng section where I was admitted also provide the same service the rest of the hospital.
Folateng section was established to raise revenue from medical aid patients and use it to improve the rest of the hospital. Therefore, I hope the payment for my admission to this hospital will also contribute to this effort.
The trend in the expenditure of medical schemes indicates that much of the health resources go into paying private 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 who most often exhaust their medical aid benefits in the private health sector.
About a year ago, the private health sector spent R43 billion on servicing only about 15% of the population (which is about 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).
I believe that this situation has to be reversed by, amongst other things, encouraging medical aid patients to use government health facilities and pay for the care received.
I know that many of you have been enquiring about why I have remained in the hospital for this long. I should have been discharged last week as I had recovered from the respiratory infection, which I was being treated for at the hospital.
However, in further consultation with the medical team attending to me, we agreed that I remained in the hospital until today to allow for my full recovery. This included participating in a couple of physiotherapy sessions to get me into shape again.
I would like to express my gratitude to all South Africans who sent me messages of support and wished me since I was admitted at the hospital. I am also grateful to those who took time to wish me a happy birthday on the 09th of October. It is very comforting to know that there are so many people who care, especially when one is ill.
I would like to acknowledge in particular the First Lady, Mrs Zanele Mbeki, the Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and other colleagues in cabinet, current and former Health MECs and all other people who took time to visit me here.
I know that many more others could not get an opportunity because of the restrictions on visit hours as a result of an order by doctors that I get sufficient time to rest.
Thank you very much to all of you.
Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
Minister of Health