We are heading towards another festive season at a dizzy speed. Just the other day we were mopping up after an exceptionally wet Easter weekend and now – still mopping up – we are right here, one month away from Christmas!
My goodness, did we have some rain this year or what?
Then again, maybe, if your roof has some seemingly unstoppable leaks, any rain, whether it is a shower or just a little drizzle, will always get your attention.
I have had so many specialists diagnosing the problem, suggesting a solution, fixing it, taking my money, leaving, getting called back to re-fix it at the next whiff of a frontal system, sometimes getting more money to throw more water-proofing material at the problem and still not fixing it really.
In fact, I am getting worried that all this added material being piled up on my roof might one day proof to be too heavy for the structure and my entire humble abode will sink into Mother Earth like the houses did in Carletonville in the Sixties and Seventies.
With the current witch-hunt for illegal dwellings by you-know-who, I should actually apply for amnesty for the amount that my roof has been raised (without plans), by layer upon layer of membrane glued onto it.
I am going to give it one more try. If that fails, I will sell everything and move to the driest of our arid regions where water doesn’t drip from your ceiling every time it rains more than ten drops or your neighbour decides to water his garden. Go where it leaks sand instead. Sand can be swept under a carpet; water not.
Okay, so I exaggerated a bit. It is not that bad. Anybody wants to make me an offer I cannot refuse? “What was that question sir?” “Oh, no, the price for the house does not include two pairs of gum-boots”.
And so it came to pass that Manto Msimang decided to make some time between the Southern Hemisphere Irresistible Tomato Soup conference (acronym not allowed) and the Young Emerging Beetroot Organisation (acronym YEBO) to announce the new and much debated pricing structure for medicine. How do you justify rigid price control in a free market system? I suppose only in Africa is that considered a possibility.
Within a week the newspapers started quoting some experts from the pharmaceutical, statistical and economic fields, all in agreement that the fees are totally inadequate. The one newspaper headed their article “The end of the era of the Corner Pharmacy”. Wow. Sitting on the corner as I do, that really hurt.
Risking my neck in debating this issue, let me offer only a few short pointers to illustrate aspects not normally evident to the public.
Government wants to assure two aspects with all this interference into medicine.
They want (1) more affordable medication (2) available to the people. What people? If you look at the 1994 Health Charter it becomes evident that previous disparities needed to be addressed. “The supply of affordable healthcare to the poorest of the poor” was mentioned.
How? Again, two aspects: Drop the price through absolute control and allow corporate supermarket groups to obtain pharmaceutical licenses – previously only granted to registered pharmacists. These chain stores were supposed to open dispensaries in the rural areas to reach the poorest of the poor.
Point is: It is not happening. It never will. All the corporate dispensaries are in affluent suburban areas where expensive chronic medication is dispensed. They want to make their shareholders happy. Not the poor.
The supply to the poor has in fact diminished to the extend that a lot of small towns and villages previously serviced by a rural chemist are now totally devoid of any pharmaceutical services due to the fact that the interference and control has forced the smaller chemists out of business and the newly announced fee structure is going to cause a large scale closure within a few months. The people living in these areas now have to travel to the nearest bigger town to get their medicine. Some saving to them!
Bottom line: I agree that medicine is expensive but I also know that it is not only the last link in the supply chain that is to be blamed. Why then cut it off?
If the traditional community pharmacy is not there anymore, you have two choices: Long queues at the supermarket where the pharmacist will not know the names of your children and the health status of your partner, or even longer queues at the state hospital where the pharmacist will not even care if you have any children.
God forbid.
Enough said. Quick commercial: With the exception of one, all the promised items in my PeeCee range are now available. I am quite proud and we are planning to go national in the New Year. The range is affordable and available. Without price control. “Eish, there he goes again!”
This time of the year a lot of people do a lot of travelling – if you are planning a trip somewhere, please read the following:
Just four hours of travel in a plane, train or car can triple your risk of potentially deadly blood clots in the legs. It is called deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The risk of DVT increases along with journey length. Those at greatest risk were people who travelled for more than 12 hours, people with certain kinds of inherited blood conditions, women taking oral contraceptives, and people taller than 2 meters, who are most affected by lack of leg room.
A traveller's risk of DVT can be reduced by moving the feet, walking around if possible, and drinking water or non-alcoholic beverages in order to prevent dehydration.
Lastly, I have seen some gripping evidence that one must control your weight but the following was too good to ignore. Only in America will they conduct research like this! Have a nice snigger: Losing weight can help you save money at the petrol pumps. That's the message from new research that found Americans' expanding waistlines are affecting fuel consumption and causing them to burn 4.3 billion more litres of fuel a year than they did in 1960. Based on recent average petrol prices, that means that Americans are spending about $2.2 billion (R15.6 billion) more a year to lug their extra kilograms around in their cars, the Associated Press reported. And the researchers noted that 4.3 billion litres is enough to fill almost 2 million cars with petrol for an entire year. – www.news24.com
That’s it for this month, have a wonderful summer, keep safe.
Pieter & Renette Naudé (and one of the kids currently visiting)
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