This week has been dominated by the sacking of the Deputy Minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, as she says, "for doing her job". The fall out from this rash act will affect our health services for years to come. Madlala-Routledge was rightly acknowledged for her stand on HIV/AIDS - one of the few in government who had the courage to go against the party line. But, in my opinion, it is the effects on the rest of the health service that will be the most damaging. Since becoming Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has done little or nothing about the abysmal state of public health facilities, as the tragedy of Frere Hospital shows so starkly. Unfortunately, the Minister's comment that this was "nothing out of the ordinary" is all too true. Our public health services are failing and failing fast. And now Mbeki has sacked one of the few people who was prepared to stand up publicly and talk about this. It is time for Tshabalala-Msimang to go. She is a disaster for the country's poor and sick and so a disaster for the country as a whole.
Dr Bridget Farham, editor: https://www.bizcommunity.com