The long wait for healing
[caption id="attachment_2939" align="alignleft" width="570"] ‘I was in so much pain and the nurses were rude to me. There are also student nurses there who have no experience, they don’t know…
Left in the dark
Thank goodness for cellphones – they can double as torches. And it’s by torchlight that staff at the rundown Batho Clinic, outside of Bloemfontein, have been forced to work since…
Join the club
It’s 7.30am on a Tuesday and Tshepo Pita and Lehlohonolo Mafabatho are watching the clock. The minutes count because they’re on a tight schedule. Within an hour they want the…
Fear and loathing in the Free State
Metallic cut-outs of roses line the main road that leads into Bloemfontein. This is the city of roses, but nothing smells sweet about its healthcare system. People call hospitals ‘mortuaries’…
NHLS crisis draws blood
The 2014 South African HIV Clinicians Society conference was plastered with a guerrilla sticker campaign: ‘Saving the NHLS = saving lives’. The National Health Laboratory Service – a national asset…
More than a financial Band-Aid needed to heal the NHLS
Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has announced plans to ‘fix’ the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) – one of the country’s most important health assets, which is on the verge…
History of the Crisis
2001 The NHLS is established by an Act of Parliament, amalgamating the South African Institute for Medical Research, National Institute for Virology and National Centre for Occupational Health, and university…
It is not the end of AIDS and therefore not the end of the TAC
AIDS is not over. Over six million people in South Africa are HIV-positive.Our country has the world’s largest AIDS treatment programme withover 2 .4 million people on antiretroviral therapy. At…
Why Clinical Associates matter
ClinAs (Clinical Associates) are an important new mid-level category of healthcare providers in the new healthcare model. They are trained to assess patients, make diagnoses, prescribe treatment and perform minor…
On the research front
Transmission risk In March 2014, researchers reported at the 21st Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) that no HIV-positive study participants with undetectable viral load counts had transmitted HIV…
Lungisa Isebe Lezempilo Sizophila!
In March members of the Stop Stockouts project and SECTION27 travelled to the Eastern Cape in order to conduct human rights awareness workshops focussed on the right to health. We…