MSF: Govt action needed to ensure immigrant healthcare access
Doctors Without Borders in South Africa says the departments of Health and Home Affairs should step in to prevent the denial of health care to undocumented migrants.
There has been a series of protests by different organisations in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal over the past few months to prevent undocumented migrants from accessing health care.
In an assessment conducted by the humanitarian group, pregnant women, people living with HIV, and those on chronic medication are at a higher risk due to the ongoing denial of health care.
Doctors Without Borders’ communication specialist, Jane Rabothatha, said it is not the citizens' role to deal with healthcare access.
“The government, especially the Department of Health, has jurisdiction over the public health facilities, and if it is migration issues, the Department of Home Affairs should intervene. Health and Home Affairs need to collaborate to find long-lasting solutions.”
“An MSF team visited 15 hospitals and clinics in Gauteng, where they consistently witnessed patients being turned away from more than half of these healthcare facilities. As a result, many patients have gone for over two weeks without their medication, something we are seriously concerned about, as defaulting on HIV treatment can have serious complications for people.”
Rabothata said it is important that the government ensure that enough resources and staff are put in place to accommodate every South African, as well as migrants.
“We are emphasising that the government should not turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the situation, things are going wrong, but it can not be that it is people on the ground who are coming up with the solution.”
