The gap between private and public health care in SA is widening

THERE’S a new hospital in town. It’s called Capital Heart Hospital. While it deals mainly with cardiac problems, it also deals with blood disorders – haematology.

As we are all aware, heart disease has become the scourge of modern society largely because of our sedentary, unhealthy lifestyles. Even though there is so much information on the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle, we still binge on junk foods, red meat and alcohol, which inevitably clog our arteries and cause heart attacks. Hence the need for another state-of-the art cardiac hospital in Durban to deal with the increasing incidence of patients.

People tend to ignore the symptoms of a heart attack, and only when they collapse do they seek medical help.

Luckily for us, heart surgery has come a long way since the pioneering days of Professor Chris Barnard. Now with all the modern technology available, cardiac surgeons are so adept that they can cut, repair, stitch and send you home in a matter of days. It’s no wonder many of us adopt such an apathetic attitude towards our health. “If my heart troubles me, I’ll just go to the doctor and ask him to put in a stent or replace the valve.”

Capital Heart Hospital has a great team of heart specialists led by the highly experienced cardiologist Dr J Patel. If you lie on the operating table with this renowned surgeon at your side, then you know you are in safe hands. After the surgery, you have a dedicated band of hard-working nurses who never keep their eyes off you. Our country is gifted with some of the best health-care professionals in the world. Sadly though, most of them are in the private hospitals. The poor have no choice but to use the overcrowded, poorly equipped and managed public hospitals.

Often, they are at the mercy of overworked, frustrated doctors, indifferent staff and inexperienced interns. After an agonising wait in the long queues, they would be lucky to get home alive.

Do you think the ANC fat cats would risk their own precious lives at a public hospital? Not even the staff who work there would take a chance at these facilities.

Capital Heart Hospital, once again, shows the yawning gulf between private and public hospitals.