EDITORIAL: A health system that cuts the wrong kidney cannot be forced onto people

There are scandals. And then there are scandals that cut so deep they expose the fragile anatomy of the State itself. The government’s decision to quietly settle a medical negligence case for N$5 million after doctors at Windhoek Central Hospital allegedly removed the wrong kidney of a patient is not just another payout. It is an indictment. A man walked into a state hospital seeking care. He walked out - permanently disabled, condemned to dialysis three times a week for the rest of his life because the healthy organ was removed instead of the diseased one. And yet, as is so often the case, the State has done what it does best: paid, settled, and moved on - without admitting guilt. At the very moment when government is toying with the idea of forcing public servants to seek treatment at state facilities, this case lands like a thunderclap.

You cannot coerce confidence. You cannot instruct citizens to trust a system that cannot distinguish between a left kidney and a right one. Healthcare is not a policy experiment. It is a matter of life and death. And trust - the most critical ingredient in any healthcare system - is earned through competence, accountability and consistency. Not out-of-court settlements. If anything, this scandal sends the opposite message: enter at your own risk. And what happened to the doctors responsible? Were they suspended or dismissed? Or are they still in operating theatres, scalpel in hand, awaiting to claim their next victim?