Right of Reply

Autor: S Andronikou, J W Lotz, I Bhorat, E Buchamann, P Soma-Pillay, E Nicolaou, L Pistorius, I Smuts
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: South African Medical Journal, Vol 112, Iss 8 (2022)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0256-9574
2078-5135
DOI: 10.7196/SAMJ.2022.v112i8.16702
Popis: To the Editor: The article by Bhorat et al. [1] in the SAMJ, entitled ‘Cerebral palsy and criteria implicating intrapartum hypoxia in neonatal encephalopathy – an obstetric perspective for the South African setting’, starts off by raising concerns about ‘steep rises in insurance premiums, placing service delivery under serious threat’. It does not acknowledge any service delivery issues that already exist in the public sector obstetric services in South Africa (SA). According to Whittaker,[2] in 2019, there were 303 obstetricians and gynaecologists employed in the SA public sector and 579 in the private sector, and of those employed in the public sector, 190 were performing private sector work. That a large number of the children with cerebral palsy (CP) were delivered in the public sector service was not noted by Bhorat et al.,[1] nor was the fact that the overwhelming majority of court cases are against the state (not against individual doctors) in provinces and hospitals with significant medical staffing and resource issues. For example, the liabilities for Eastern Cape Province in the 2019/20 period were ZAR36 751 207 v. only ZAR33 155 in Western Cape Province for the same period.[2]
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals