Joburg health system overburdened by illegal immigrants: MMC
Johannesburg MMC for Health Ashley Sauls has blamed illegal immigration for the capacity problems at the city's hospitals.
On Saturday, Sauls paid a visit to the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child hospital where he recorded a video of pregnant women sleeping on the hospital's floors with little to no blankets.
Sauls posted the video to social media and claimed that the women had been sleeping on the floor for up to three days.
"There were women that were there for at least three days, and they were just waiting," Sauls said.
"The only thing that was done, was their blood pressures were taken. It was very, very sad."
Sauls said that he spoke to the matron of the hospital, who indicated to him that they were inundated with undocumented foreigners.
"We need to stop tiptoeing around the real issue, which is illegal immigration. We need to find ways to controlling it," Sauls said.
"We can expand hospitals, we can divert patients to other hospitals, but even that approach at some point is not going to help, because then that system becomes overburdened.
"We need to be clear about what our policies are around control of undocumented foreigners especially regarding health services.
"We can't have a situation where South African citizens are disadvantaged in terms of what their rights are to public health.
"Our health systems are overburdened due to the overlooking of controlling illegal immigration.
"Local, provincial and national leadership need to put our heads together and deal with the problem directly.
"We must put South Africans first.”
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