Conditions and treatment at the Katutura hospital came in for strong criticism at a series of meetings in the black township, and a preliminary survey of general health conditions in Katutura revealed what was discribed as 'an abysmal situation'. A memorandum has been submitted to the Secretary of National Health and Welfare by the Katutura Health Committee which carried out the investigation.
According to the health committee's report to a public seminar held in November 1984, a preliminary survey of 44 households revealed that 9.1 per cent of people had tuberculosis, 18.29 per cent tuberculosis and high blood pressure, and 20.5 per cent high blood pressure. Out of a total of 149 children covered by the survey, only 47 had been immunized. A health committee member told the seminar that although the sample size of the survey was small, this did not nullify the 'shocking revelations' since no great variations were found. A further survey of 700 households was planned.
At three previous meetings, a number of complaints were voiced about the health care provisions available in Katutura, and the treatment they offered. Complaints included: the fact that, apart from the Katutura hospital there was only one clinic in the township; the lack of transport between the hospital and the clinic and the limited hours of surgery which restricted availability of treatment.
There were a number of criticisms of the hospital service, including the excessively long time patients had to wait for treatment, the shortage of doctors, unhygienic conditions at the hospital and the ambulance service. It was found that the ambulance service seemed to arbitrarily charge between R2.50 and R12 without issuing receipts.
The survey conducted by the health committee was dismissed by the Secretary for National Health and Welfare as 'unscientific and unacceptable'. He claimed that reliable statistics could not be obtained from an unrepresentative survey.
Evidence collected by health workers and experts in recent years largely confirms the picture emerging from the survey, however. A Windhoek doctor found in 1981 that in the Windhoek area 30 times as many black people suffered from tuberculosis as white people per 1,000 of the population. According to a survey of deaths in Windhoek between 1976 and 1981, the average age of death from tuberculosis amongst white people was 60, while for Africans it was 24.
Tuberculosis was described as having reached 'alarming proportions' among black Namibians, according to a survey carried out by the German Development Institute in 1980. The study found that in Namibia as a whole, 5.69 per 1,000 black people suffered from it, while virtually no white people had the disease. It described tuberculosis as a 'typical poor man's disease, exacerbated by poor nutrition, overcrowded living conditions and lack of treatment'.
Conditions at the Katutura hospital have come under criticism in the past, and reflect the discriminatory nature of the health service in Namibia under South Africa's apartheid policies. A survey in 1981 found that, while the Windhoek Hospital for whites had an occupancy rate of 36 per cent in 1981, the Katutura hospital for black people was overcrowded and its resources severely overstretched.
