Wits students tackle social inequality in healthcare through new society

Health sciences students launched a new society dedicated to creating awareness about inequalities in healthcare. Photo: Provided.
Wits health science students launched the Student Advocates for Health society (StAH) at the Parktown campus last night. The society reflects the awareness of these students of the socio-economic factors affecting the quality of healthcare in South Africa.
The idea for the organisation came about when a group of students doing shifts at a local hospital were outraged by a poster indicating that some patients were denied HIV treatment.
“We saw the social inequality and did not know how to do anything about it. We [health science students] don’t know what’s happening in the world, we don’t know what politics mean. This organisation is to inform students about the realities of what is happening in hospitals,” said one of the founders, Ndumiso Mathebula, 4th year MBBCh.
The society plans to facilitate opportunities for students to work with organisations like Section27, Doctors Without Borders, the Wits Citizenship Community Outreach, the Wits Transformation Office and the Treatment Action Campaign . Students will learn different skills of advocacy, said Mathebula.
Empowered students
Neo Mkhaba, 4th year MBBCh and StAH media officer, said as advocates, health science students would be empowered to “identify problems and come up with solutions that are comprehensive and sustainable.”
Joseph Tewson, anatomy honours, said: “I get very excited when things happen on campus. We are a very laid-back generation. We need more of this on campus. We need more people to step into the darkness, because someone has to turn on the light.”
Lesnè Pucjlowski, 3rd year MBBCh was keen on standing up for her patients, “I’m really just interested in standing up for my patients’ human rights. Our patients are important and their needs are important and I am happy that StAH will give me the opportunity to be proactive.”
Cybil Mulundi, 4th year MBBCh, wants to implement what she learns at StAH in her future career: “I am here to learn how doctors can make patients more aware of their human rights and make sure they are not taken advantage of.”
Monique Losper, 4th year MBBCh, added: “I would like to find out how to create a better relationship between doctors and patients in our careers going forward. I am expecting StAH to help enhance awareness of rights and responsibilities so that patients can receive good healthcare.”
The organisers used the event to commemorate the youth of 1976, who died for what they believed in, said Mkhaba. The same spirit of activism should be carried by this generation, but it should not be destructive, emphasised Mathebula. In the past, people had to destroy to get their freedom, he told Wits Vuvuzela.
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- Wits Vuvuzela. Bioethics society a necessity for Wits health science students. June 6, 2014