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The State of State Healthcare

News
06 July 2018
Much has been said about South Africa’s ever-struggling public healthcare system. Whether it’s due to understaffed facilities, overall mismanagement, lack of funding or just outright negligence, many doctors on the ground are now labelling State healthcare facilities “death traps” for patients in dire need of medical treatment.
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Much has been said about South Africa’s ever-struggling public healthcare system. Whether it’s due to understaffed facilities, overall mismanagement, lack of funding or just outright negligence, many doctors on the ground are now labelling State healthcare facilities “death traps” for patients in dire need of medical treatment.

So, what does the overall state of the country’s public hospitals, clinics and Community Health Centres (CHCs) really look like? Each year, the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) compiles a detailed report on these medical facilities. For the 2016/17 period, a total of 696 public healthcare facilities were inspected by the OHSC and gave the following average scores out of 100%.

Overall, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal top the list in all instances – from Patient Safety to Cleanliness. However, the OHSC says in its report that, despite this, medical facilities across  all nine provinces need to seriously up their game.