Challenges faced by elderly people of the Tshani Community in accessing Tertiary Health Care Services

The current research explores the issue of the elderly in the rural Tshani community of the Eastern Cape area, South Africa, about accessing tertiary healthcare services. It was done to understand the impact of barriers at the socioeconomic, geographical, and systems level on the capacity of the aged population to receive specialised medical care and suggest measures to improve access. The qualitative descriptive research design, which used semi-structured face-to-face interviews of 20 purposely selected respondents aged 60 years and above was adopted. The thematic data analysis was conducted based on the framework provided by Braun and Clarke (2022) to detect common patterns and trends. The results showed five key themes, namely geographical and transportation barriers, health system inefficiencies, lack of social and family support, lack of information on available services, and felt gaps in the government intervention. The participants explained the long waits to hospitals, expensive transport, ineffective referral mechanisms, and low availability of specialists. Isolation and neglect were widespread, accompanied by poor communication from the healthcare providers. The research suggests transportation subsidies, enhanced referral systems, augmented government expenditure in rural health facilities, and the formation of community-based support systems among the aged people. The research reveals the lived lives of the rural aged population to the sociological and public health literature on healthcare disparities, as well as provides evidence-based information on policy interventions that can help address the inequity in accessing tertiary healthcare in South Africa.