Pandemic exposes dire state of SA hospitals

ONE is not implying that lives are not being lost recently to some bad influence or what governments and health officials have given a name – Covid-19.

But what is happening in Gauteng hospitals, where patients die because of a lack of resources, is not something new.

This pandemic has actually highlighted an occurrence that has been going on for years and years in this province.

Health facilities have been teetering on the brink of a major disaster for some time because money that was meant for health facilities was squandered through corruption.

That new centres to house an overflow of patients are recently being built when we were told of the hard lockdown in March and April, has bought the government time to build more facilities and procure ventilators and personal protective equipment, exposes one of the biggest lies about this pandemic.

Now politicians are saying the pandemic is peaking and that health services cannot or would not cope.

What are we supposed to believe then?

What did they do during the hard lockdown?

People have been forced to live in fear behind masks and closed doors, while politicians are continuing to squander money meant to build health facilities for taxpayers, the elderly, children and the poor.

Society needs to wake up and start mobilising before it is too late.

If we allow ourselves to be blindsided by the fear factor, then by the time we wake up, we will be living in a dictatorship.

| VUYISWA ZWIDE Randburg