Soldiers and volunteers are helping out in hospitals during the strike

Patients struggling to get their chronic medicines during the public sector strike can contact the SA National AIDS Council Nerve Centre for assistance at (012) 395 9078/9, (012) 395 9081/7/8/9 or (012) 395 9090 or e-mail: sanacnervecentre@gmail.com.

SANAC appealed to health workers today to make sure that the strike did not interrupt the flow of life-saving antiretrovirals and TB drugs to patients needing them, and to ensure that diabetic, epileptic and blood pressure patients could also get their medications.

More than a million South Africans are on ARVS and disrupting their treatment could jeopardise their health and increase the risk of drug resistance.

“A failure to ensure an uninterrupted flow of medication…will be seen for years to come and could adversely affect thousands of people,” warned SANAC deputy chairperson Mark Heywood.

“SANAC acknowledges the right of health workers to take industrial action. However we are concerned that persons who are reliant on the public health sector for medical care are being turned away, and in some cases intimidated, when presenting themselves for re-stocking of their medication.”

The Treatment Action Campaign and the human rights and health NGO, Section 27, also raised concerns about the impact of the strike.

“We support the demands of workers and their right to strike. But we regret the growing polarisation, pain and loss of life. This is now a political crisis that requires political leadership and a solution,” said TAC chairperson Nonkosi Khumalo.

The organisations urged government to pay health workers properly, saying they understood the anger of workers.

“But TAC and SECTION27 are concerned that striking workers have engaged in intimidation and violence against non-striking workers and endangered the lives of patients. It is vital that the workers hold the moral high ground in this strike.”

The organisations called on COSATU and all unions “to support efforts to ensure that people requiring chronic medicines” receive them.

They called on the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to take urgent measures to stabilise the health system including:
• Re-deploying bureaucrats from overstaffed offices of the national and provincial health departments into healthcare facilities.
• Holding hospital CEOs to account for performance.
• Identifying and punishing corruption
• Urgently finalising a rural health strategy, and
• Urgently finalising a reasonable human resource for health plan with sufficient resources to implement it.

The Health Professions Council of SA expressed its shock today at the “effects of the current strike action on the lives of patients”.

HPCSA Acting Registrar Ms Marella O’Reilly said: “We emphatically denounce the unlawful strike action.

“It is unacceptable that striking emergency service workers in healthcare environments are either interfering with or refusing to assist healthcare practitioners who are providing an essential service.”

The Council called for “urgent mediation to ensure that essential services deliver on the public’s constitutional right to healthcare services”.

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