Reuters AlertNet Lite - SWAZILAND: Promise to heal the health service

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

SWAZILAND: Promise to heal the health service

14 Nov 2008 18:43:25 GMT
Source: IRIN

MBABANE, 14 November 2008 (IRIN) - Moved by the deplorable conditions he found on a tour of Swaziland's hospitals and clinics, Prime Minister Sibusiso Dlamini has vowed to reform the healthcare system.

"If you don't do what I have just said about improving hospitals, you must just hit the road and head home," Dlamini instructed Minister of Health and Social Welfare Benedict Xaba.

Like the Prime Minister and the rest of cabinet, Xaba was appointed to his job in November by King Mswati III, after the general election on 19 September.

Along with a food crisis and high unemployment, the deteriorating health in a country with less than one million people poses the greatest threat to the long-term development of this landlocked, resource-poor nation.

At Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital in the central town of Manzini, the country's industrial hub, where the premier and health minister paid a visit this week, sophisticated diagnostic machines lie idle, lacking spare parts or simply a competent technician to run them.

Problem to be poor

"Patients lie on floors; people with contagious disease are crowded in with others patients. The queues are endless. One of our greatest fears working here is catching HIV," one of the nursing staff told IRIN.

"From time to time there are shortages of basics, like rubber gloves, but you can't stop assisting people; you can't shun a bleeding person because he or she may be HIV-positive." UNAIDS estimates that over a quarter of the sexually active adult population is HIV positive.

The hospital, built in 1930 with American money, was the first to offer medical assistance to Swazis, when the country was still under British colonial rule.

Twenty years ago it was a no-frills, well-maintained facility, but modest renovations have not kept pace with a doubling of the urban population, whose newcomers tend to dwell in poor informal settlements ringing the town.

"The poor cannot afford doctors, so the RFM emergency room is their primary healthcare [clinic]," said Joseph Mamba, a social welfare worker in Manzini.

Hearing from hospital staff, administrators and patients about these Dickensian conditions, a visibly angry Dlamini ordered improvements to start by the end of 2008.

Health officials hope the premier's passion is not short-lived, and that the health ministry can be reformed. In the recent past it was led by members of the royal family, who have been pilloried in the press for being reportedly unqualified and incompetent.

The perennial problems of low morale and the brain-drain of qualified staff to other countries are not likely to be rectified until the government reprioritises its spending and increases the budget allocation to the health sector.

Life expectancy in Swaziland is just 33 years, according to the UN Development Programme. A decade ago a population of 1.2 million was projected for 2008; now there are fewer than one million, and only 9 percent of men and 12 percent of women can expect to see their 65th year.

jh/oa/he

Email this article Send comments

NGO latest

• African child rights organisations urge governments in Africa to ban all forms of corporal punishment of children
Save the Children - Sweden

• ADRA Distributes Food, Footwear, and Clothing in Vulnerable Swazi Communities
ADRA - International

• ADRA Delivers $22 Million Worth of Books in Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean
ADRA - International

MORE >>

Latest news

• SWAZILAND: Promise to heal the health service

• SWAZILAND: Gerry Tsabedze, "The poor have rights, but they don't know them"

• SWAZILAND: Thembe Manana: "Even without HIV, life would be very hard"

• Zimbabwe crisis worsens amid impasse, Amnesty says

• Zimbabwe crisis worsens amid impasse, Amnesty says

MORE >>

IRIN news

Background information

Facts & figures

Swaziland

Breaking stories

SWAZILAND: Promise to heal the health service (1 minute ago)

SWAZILAND: Gerry Tsabedze, "The poor have rights, but they don't know them" (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight

MEDIAWATCH: Food summit thwarts hope (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed

African child rights organisations urge governments in Africa to ban all forms of corporal punishment of children (1 minute ago)

Blogs

Yes, people over 50 have sex too (1 minute ago)

Maps

MAP: Global Incidence of H5N1 Virus (1 minute ago)