DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA – According to South Africa’s National Health Act, primary healthcare facilities run by the state must provide free care to everyone, except for people covered by private medical aid schemes. This is not only south Africa though it could be said that in almost every country in the world this has always been a state responsibility to make sure that every citizen no matter what social and wealth standing has to be given medical coverage.
In south Africa however if people can afford private health care, then the government does not need to worry about them as they do the people who can’t afford private healthcare. Private health care has made qualms or secrets about the fact that it is expensive and there for can only attained by people who have the means and the income to do so. But this does not mean that the people who don’t have that income should be left with no health care at all.
The South African Refugees Act of 1998 states that refugees are entitled to the same amount of access to medical treatment as the public citizens of the country. It is understood that health care the bare minimum of it at least is a basic human right. This means that refugees are also human and cannot be treated like non entities.
In this context, medical xenophobia is a term that scholars use to describe negative attitudes, perceptions and practices of healthcare providers towards non-national patients on the basis of their national origin. Providers include frontline staff like nurses, doctors, clerks and security personnel.
The main idea that informs this discrimination is that the patient is an outsider and therefore “undeserving” of care in a public facility. The thinking is that non-nationals are overburdening the public healthcare system by using resources that are already scarce.
DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA – According to South Africa’s National Health Act, primary healthcare facilities run by the state must provide free care to everyone, except for people covered by private medical aid schemes. This is not only south Africa though it could be said that in almost every country in the world this has always been a state responsibility to make sure that every citizen no matter what social and wealth standing has to be given medical coverage.
In south Africa however if people can afford private health care, then the government does not need to worry about them as they do the people who can’t afford private healthcare. Private health care has made qualms or secrets about the fact that it is expensive and there for can only attained by people who have the means and the income to do so. But this does not mean that the people who don’t have that income should be left with no health care at all.
The South African Refugees Act of 1998 states that refugees are entitled to the same amount of access to medical treatment as the public citizens of the country. It is understood that health care the bare minimum of it at least is a basic human right. This means that refugees are also human and cannot be treated like non entities.
In this context, medical xenophobia is a term that scholars use to describe negative attitudes, perceptions and practices of healthcare providers towards non-national patients on the basis of their national origin. Providers include frontline staff like nurses, doctors, clerks and security personnel.
The main idea that informs this discrimination is that the patient is an outsider and therefore “undeserving” of care in a public facility. The thinking is that non-nationals are overburdening the public healthcare system by using resources that are already scarce.
