An Account of Health Care Systems and Crises in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa

Abstract

The health care system of post-Apartheid South Africa suffers from an epidemic of HIV/AIDS and TB with a number of mitigating factors that have caused these diseases to spread. The purpose of this paper is to explore the causes of the epidemics and to provide a macro and micro perspective of the public health care system of South Africa. Research of the health care system took place over an eleven week period in the summer of 2008. In this time, day to day operations at six hospitals/health care facilities were observed in South Africa’s province of Kwa-Zulu Natal. These experiences provide an insight into the influences that race, culture, poverty and access to health care have on the people of South Africa. The effects of poverty on access to health care were found to be substantial and race was found to be a strong indicator of one’s wealth and, therefore, access to health care. In addition, the location of hospitals, urban or rural, provided an indication of the quality of care, staff levels and drug availability at all of the hospitals visited.