When Elise M’s* 18-year-old daughter tried to kill herself with an
overdose of pills last year, the ambulance that Elise called took them
to nearby South Rand Hospital, in the Johannesburg suburb of
Rosettenville. But nurses at the hospital refused to admit her.
“They pointed to a sign on the wall saying non-South Africans have to
pay R5,000, [US$457]” recalled Elise. “I offered my cell phone, but they
said, ‘No, this is not a pawn shop.’”
Elise, who is an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC), had to beg a lift from a neighbour to take her unconscious
daughter to another hospital where she was finally helped.
Stories like Elise’s have become commonplace among refugee communities
all over Gauteng in the past year. The province, which is South Africa’s
most prosperous and encompasses the cities of Johannesburg and
Pretoria, is also home to the highest concentration of migrants,
including asylum seekers and refugees.
National health policy guarantees asylum seekers, refugees and
undocumented migrants from other SADC (Southern African Development
Community) countries, the same rights to treatment at public sector
hospitals as South African citizens. They are supposed to pay only what
they can afford, based on their income.
However, last August, Gauteng’s provincial health department distributed
a draft set of guidelines for managing non-South African patients that
appears to have sowed confusion among healthcare providers and resulted
in patients like Elise’s daughter being denied critical care.
The root of the confusion seems to stem from the guidelines’ definition
of foreign patients as including refugees and asylum seekers. Such
patients, according to the guidelines, should be charged in full before
being treated. Lower down, it lists refugees and asylum seekers (but not
SADC citizens) as among the categories of foreign patients who should
in fact be charged according to income means testing.
more information here
Emigration, immigration: a global phenomenon since humans first evolved. Millenia of no borders, countries, nationalities - people wandering freely over the planet, finding their niches in suitable climes and moving on at will.
Who are we, each one of us, if not a mongrel of mixed ethnicities over a very long time period? It's long past time for further evolution - of the intellect and imagination - to recognise our common heritage globally and work for that world in common which can exist again.
JS
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