Gauteng health system in crisis

We are publishing a series of videos showing the appalling human rights abuses in the province’s hospitals

By Adel Van Niekerk and GroundUp Staff

7 April 2022

The Gauteng public health system is in a crisis. Cancer patients often die while waiting months for urgent treatment. There are numerous allegations of staff mistreating patients, even tying a patient to a bench. Health workers themselves complain that the load is too much and that the province’s health leadership is missing in action.

Adel van Niekerk has shot six short videos exposing the awful state of things. Gauteng has never had a brilliant public health system, but it was once a passable service.

The six videos in the series are:

• Gauteng’s cancer treatment crisis;
• Thato Moncho’s long wait for life-saving treatment;
• Emergency room doctors are burnt out;
• How not to treat patients: A lesson from Steve Biko Hospital;
• How not to treat patients: Lessons from Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital;
• After her aunt was tied to a bench, an activist fights for a better system.

We will start publishing the videos, once every couple of days, on Tuesday, 12 April.

(Thumbnail image, via Pexels, free to use)