I'm in the tabloids!

Listen up people! In the world of the public health system - there are strict rules.


The first rule is this: There shall be a gross understaffing of all units, and a severe lack of working equipment.

The second rule is this: This means that to receive the free health care you want, you will have to wait.

The third rule: Being brought in the ambulance, or arriving before another patient, does not mean that you will be seen first. There is a triage system - stabbed chests, heart attacks and the likes get seen before chronic back pain and boils on your bum.

If you do not like this, please go and visit the GP down the street who will take your money and send you back here for an x-ray anyway.

No matter how many times I have to explain this, you still don't get it do you?

Maybe I should say it in Afrikaans.

Die dag hospitaal is 'n wag hospitaal!


What's that, oh you don't like this system? Why don't you put some effort into your complaint and write a letter to the government? Oh wait ,the clever previous Government, they didn't prioritise education for those living on the flats, so you can't write!

What did you say? My mother's what?

Oh and now you're threatening to sue me and put me in the tabloids? Which one, may I ask?

The "Daily Voice", is that right?

Come on man, don't be cheap, I'm worth more than that, put me in the Cape Times!


My poor patients, frustrated up to their eyeballs by the long waits they have to endure, have this one recourse - to threaten those of us actually working in the system with a call to the tabloid to "expose" us. The "Daily Voice" is a very popular community tabloid. Some buy it for the "information" it contains, some for the page three girl. Either way, it costs somewhere in the region of R2. Which means that it is cheaper than toilet paper.