her discharge from hospital
27 October 2006
I am very glad that I have been discharged today after being in the hospital
for the past three weeks.
I would like to express my appreciation to all the staff of the Johannesburg
General Hospital for the high quality care that has been rendered to me.
When I was admitted, I was very ill. My gratitude goes to Professor Jeff
Wing and his team for managing my condition in a professional manner.
This hospital has always been good to me in the past few occasions that I
have used it, either as an in or outpatient. As you may remember, I was once
admitted to this hospital in 2003 with a bout of flu, which was complicated by
my chronic asthma condition.
I hope that the medical team that attended to me during my admission renders
the same quality of care to all other patients that are admitted to
Johannesburg Hospital. As you may know, the same team of doctors working at the
Folateng section where I was admitted also provide the same service to the rest
of the hospital.
Folateng section was established to raise revenue from medical aid patients
and use it to improve the rest of the hospital. Therefore, I hope the payment
for my admission to this hospital will also contribute to this effort.
The trend in the expenditure of medical schemes indicates that much of the
health resources go into paying private medical specialists and private
hospital fees. The public health sector is the main loser in the current
spending pattern as public hospitals have to absorb all those patients who most
often exhaust their medical aid benefits in the private health sector.
About a year ago, the private health sector spent R43 billion on servicing
only about 15% of the population (which is about 7 million people covered by
medical schemes) while the state used R33,2 billion to care for the rest of the
population (38 million people).
I believe that this situation has to be reversed by, amongst other things,
encouraging medical aid patients to use government health facilities and pay
for the care received.
I know that many of you have been enquiring about why I have remained in the
hospital for this long. I should have been discharged last week as I had
recovered from the respiratory infection, which I was being treated for at the
hospital.
However, after further consultation with the medical team attending to me,
we agreed that I remain in hospital until today to allow for my full recovery.
This included participating in a couple of physiotherapy sessions to get me
into shape again.
I would like to express my gratitude to all South Africans who sent me
messages of support and wished me well since I was admitted to hospital.
I am also grateful to those who took time to wish me a happy birthday on 9
October. It is very comforting to know that there are so many people who care,
especially when one is ill.
I would like to acknowledge in particular the First Lady, Mrs Zanele Mbeki,
the Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and other colleagues in Cabinet,
current and former Health MECs and all the other people who took time to visit
me here.
I know that many more others could not get an opportunity because of the
restrictions on visiting hours as a result of an order by doctors that I get
sufficient time to rest.
Thank you very much to all of you.
Issued by: Ministry of Health
27 October 2006
