Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170013
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA LENGTH: Medium
Health Minister Rina Venter told Parliament in Cape Town that all hospitals must be available to all South Africans for the country's health system to run effectively.
"All hospitals are now accessible to all people in South Africa," Venter said in an interview after leaving Parliament.
The health minister said the decision was effective immediately and that patients staying at overcrowded black hospitals now could be moved to underutilized white hospitals.
Asked if she was worried about the reaction from conservative whites, Venter said, "No. I think [integrated hospitals] will be in the interests of all our people."
The decision was the latest in a series of reforms since President F.W. de Klerk took office in August.
Schools and neighborhoods now remain the main segregated institutions in South Africa. Also, the country's 28 million blacks have no voice in national affairs.
De Klerk has pledged to dismantle apartheid and wants to negotiate a new constitution that will bring blacks into the national government. However, he opposes outright black majority rule.
The decision to integrate health services should help alleviate overcrowding at many black hospitals.
For example, Johannesburg General Hospital, which is for whites, has an occupancy rate of about 50 percent. In contrast, hundreds of black patients sleep on the floor at Baragwanath Hospital, the only hospital in the nearby black township of Soweto.
Traditionally, white hospitals treated blacks in need of emergency or specialized care but transferred them to black hospitals as soon as it was feasible.
The anti-apartheid National Medical and Dental Association welcomed the change.
"We hope this example will be followed quickly in bringing about an end to other obstacles toward a free and democratic South Africa," the group said.
The staff at public hospitals has been integrated for years. At many private hospitals, both patients and staff already are fully integrated.
In another development, Defense Minister Magnus Malan told Parliament the military was considering integrating some army units. Currently, all white men are subject to one year of mandatory service where they are placed in segregated units. Blacks, who serve voluntarily, may soon be included in these units, Malan said.
by CNB