The state of sexual assualt services: Findings from a situation analysis of services in South Africa
Date
2003-10
Authors
Christofides, Nicola
Webster, Naomi
Jewkes, Rachel
Penn-Kekana, Loveday
Martin, Lorna
Abrahams, Naeema
Kim, Julia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Centre for Health Policy - School of Public Health - University of the Witwatersrand
Abstract
Women often receive very poor quality medical care after sexual assault. This has been
highlighted in work done by Human Rights Watch, Suffla and others that explored services in
some provinces. No systematic investigation of services in all provinces had been carried out.
In 2001, the National Department of Health prioritised improving sexual assault services and
the research presented in this report was conducted to inform this process. The aim was to
investigate sexual assault services provided by health sector in South Africa with an in-depth
look at North West province. Two district hospitals; a regional hospital and a tertiary hospital
(where they existed) were randomly sampled in all provinces. The total number of hospitals in
the sampling frame varied from province to province. This was adjusted for in analysis
through weighting. At each hospital, we interviewed two doctors and two nurses who
examined or assisted in the management of a patient who presented at the hospital after
rape. A primary health care clinic, which referred patients to the sampled hospital in each
district, was identified and a nurse at the clinic was interviewed. A total of 155 providers were
interviewed. A facility checklist was completed at each hospital. In North West Province, 199
nurses and doctors were interviewed from 20 hospitals and a primary health care clinic that
referred patients to these hospitals. In addition, district managers, police, social workers and
representatives of NGOs addressing gender-based violence were interviewed.
Description
Research report
Keywords
women, NGO, human, rights, assualt, sex, rape, North West Province, nurse