Unequal acccess to health services
ACTIVITIES At Hospital
We were in charge of documentaries at the hospital. We stamped, filled and filed documents that would be of utmost importance to patients who would come to the hospital. We folded them and moved them to the basement of the hospital. We worked for a total of 4 hours and documented a total of 1500 forms altogether. We also took photos of our work at the hospital and a certificate was given to us by the supervisor.
INTRODUCTION
This assignment focuses on the comparing and contrasting the functionalist, conflict and symbolic interaction perspective on the health care system in South Africa and its problems. Functionalists note that health is essential to the preservation of the human species and organized social life. One way societies contain the negative effects of health problems and disease is through institutionalizing illness in a sick role. Conflict theorists note that some people achieve better health than others because they have better access to those resources that contribute to good health and recovery should they become ill. While poorer people have deprived access to those same resources. With this kind of unequal access to health services, many of the poor will die due to this problem.
The proposal for national health insurance (NHI) is part of a welcome resurgence in public discourse about poverty, health and access to health services in South Africa. Despite certain areas of progress in the country since 1994, disparities in wealth and health are among the widest in the world. In 2008, for example, 54% of South Africans had an income below $3/day. The top 10% of South Africans account for 58% of annual national personal income, while the balance of 70% received a mere 16.9%. The Gini co-efficient, a measure of income inequality, increased from 0.6 in 1995 to 0.679 in 2009.
In 2005, infant mortality rates ranged from
We were in charge of documentaries at the hospital. We stamped, filled and filed documents that would be of utmost importance to patients who would come to the hospital. We folded them and moved them to the basement of the hospital. We worked for a total of 4 hours and documented a total of 1500 forms altogether. We also took photos of our work at the hospital and a certificate was given to us by the supervisor.
INTRODUCTION
This assignment focuses on the comparing and contrasting the functionalist, conflict and symbolic interaction perspective on the health care system in South Africa and its problems. Functionalists note that health is essential to the preservation of the human species and organized social life. One way societies contain the negative effects of health problems and disease is through institutionalizing illness in a sick role. Conflict theorists note that some people achieve better health than others because they have better access to those resources that contribute to good health and recovery should they become ill. While poorer people have deprived access to those same resources. With this kind of unequal access to health services, many of the poor will die due to this problem.
The proposal for national health insurance (NHI) is part of a welcome resurgence in public discourse about poverty, health and access to health services in South Africa. Despite certain areas of progress in the country since 1994, disparities in wealth and health are among the widest in the world. In 2008, for example, 54% of South Africans had an income below $3/day. The top 10% of South Africans account for 58% of annual national personal income, while the balance of 70% received a mere 16.9%. The Gini co-efficient, a measure of income inequality, increased from 0.6 in 1995 to 0.679 in 2009.
In 2005, infant mortality rates ranged from