Abstract:
The dawn of democracy in 1994 saw huge strides in the adjustment of various statutory
instruments that aimed at opening the systems to all South Africans particularly the
previously excluded groups. Health care system was one of the ear marked areas by
the South African government for post-apartheid transformation. Resultantly, access to
health care was declared a right and incorporated into the Constitution of the Republic
of South Africa 1996. Numerous legislative and practical steps towards achieving
access to health care for all have been made with notable results. However, due the
apartheid spatial planning which persuaded separate development left some sections of
the community remote and with no infrastructure to support health care delivery. As a
result, this has made the realization of the health care for all dreams elusive.
Reportedly, the most affected communities were mainly homelands which were largely
rural and townships. Despite notable improvements in the delivery of health care
services across the Republic, there are still major challenges faced in this sector mainly
in the rural areas and townships. Therefore, the study was set to investigate and
evaluate the state of health care service delivery in rural Ndengeza Township. The
study employed both qualitative and quantitative method following a descriptive design
(cross-sectional) and data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire and
interview questions. The results revealed that transport, staff-patient relationship,
unavailability of medication and medical staff were the major challenges of health care
service delivery in rural areas. The respondents alluded that to improve health service
delivery in the area, there is need to make available basic medication and trained
medical personnel. It is believed, by the participants, that adding the number of staff will
go a long way in changing the negative perceptions such as long queues, unavailability
of critical services and unprincipled professionals that the public have of the local health
care centers
