Protesters turn back patients and migrants at Kalafong hospital

Doctors Without Borders (DWB) has decried an ongoing “xenophobic” protest outside Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital stopping patients, especially migrants, receiving healthcare services.

The organisation said the actions must be rejected and should trigger urgent action by health authorities and leaders to protect access to healthcare for all.

Operation Dudula supporters have been protesting outside the hospital in Atteridgeville, Tshwane, for three weeks, chanting threatening statements through loudhailers and preventing many from entering the facility, said the organisation.

“[On Friday] several people were turned away by the protesters based on their appearance and accent,” said Sibusiso Ndlovu, health promotion supervisor for the organisation in Tshwane, adding that the protesters are putting hospital staff under immense pressure with demands that all foreigners be removed. 

Hostility to serving migrants in SA’s health facilities has been intensifying, fuelled by inflammatory and political statements from government officials, including Limpopo health MEC Dr Phophi Ramathuba, who was recently recorded berating a Zimbabwean patient in a health facility, claiming migrants are overburdening the health system, said DWB.

If migrants are fearful for their safety when entering or leaving health facilities, and if health workers are placed under pressure to behave as immigration officers, the consequences will be felt across the population, said the organisation.  

“One major concern as the politicisation of healthcare expands is that serious notifiable diseases could go unrecorded and untreated, which will inhibit the public healthcare system’s overall capacity and ability to contain infectious disease outbreaks,” said Dr Tasanya Chinsamy, medical activity manager for DWB in Tshwane.    

One patient denied care in Kalafong Hospital was a 37-week pregnant migrant woman with high blood pressure, who instead had to seek help atm a local clinic, said DWB.

“Clinics are not equipped to provide tertiary care for complex cases such as these, which require access to a specialist and certain medications that are only available at hospital level,” Chinsamy said.    

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