Help Wanted: Doctors

In well developed countries like America, the sick receive care in hospitals and doctors take care of them so they can feel better. But what if people couldn’t get a doctor to help them? What if there weren’t enough doctors? In South Africa, people face this everyday. The probability of dying between fifteen to sixty years is about 39% for males and 27% for females, and the life expectancy from birth is only 59 years for males and 66 years for females (World). Every year, there are countless deaths from epidemics such as HIV and AIDS spreading across the country. Failure to stop and treat these epidemics is one of the South African healthcare’s biggest problems (Myhill). These epidemics are spreading while the doctors can’t keep up because of the undersupply of doctors, as well as the division between the private and public sectors of the health care system.

One of the main problems with the health care in South Africa is the lack of interest . Few people want to become a doctor or nurse and join the health care system. The system can’t seem to attract enough skills and talent (Myhill). Despite the growing number of graduating doctors, there still aren’t enough and they can’t keep up with the growing population (Mayosi). Being a doctor or nurse is supposedly a highly respected position in society and is well-appreciated everywhere (Mannu). But even with this respect, there is still a lack of available doctors, which can make it hard for others to learn medicine (Mannu). Health care relies on doctors, and with people not wanting to study medicine, the health care system is declining.

Another main problem with the health care system is the division between the public and private health sectors. The private sectors are for the wealthy and are much better than the public sectors for the poor, common people. The private sector has money, better doctors, and a larger number of doctors, yet they still complain. They want more. “We are running a healthcare system where the poor do not get what they need, while the rich get more than they need. Which means there is over-servicing of the rich and a gross under-servicing of the poor,” said a health minister. The private sectors are very expensive and has more doctors, so the public sector is over-burdened and an increasing patient load (Stoltz). The health care should be focusing on other, more important problems than the rich demanding more doctors.

Effective, easily accessible health care is something everyone should have. The health care system exists to aid sick and dying people. It’s important to have a steady income of doctors working to help people and to not have a large divide between the rich and poor sectors. South Africa isn’t the only country that needs help with their health care systems. Epidemics spreading across South Africa aren’t native to the country; they are all across the globe, infecting thousands of people. If every health care system was like a developed world’s health care, many lives would be saved.

Anonymous. “South Africa.” "World Health Organization", World Health Organization, June 2017. Accessed June 2017.

Mannu, Gurdeep S. "Surgery in the Developing and Developed World: A Comparison between the Healthcare Systems of South Africa and the United States of America." Education in Medicine Journal, vol. 5, no. 1, Mar. 2013, pp. e67-e71. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5959/eimj.v5i1.100.

Mayosi, Bogani M and Benatar, Solomon R. “Health and Health Care in SouthAfrica — 20 Years after Mandela.” New England Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, Feb. 2014. Accessed June 2017.

Myhill, Jason. “Healthcare: Tension between Critical Needs and Economics.” Leader.co.za, Leader.co.za, May 2011. Accessed June 2017.

Stoltz, Anton and Wolvaardt, Gustaaf. “Fixing the Ailing Public Health System Requires Us to Go Back to Basics.” Leader.co.za, Leader.co.za, 2011. Accessed June 2017.