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Waiting is not an option in the first 1000 days: How a shared approach in Cape Town helps high-risk babies

Waiting is not an option in the first 1000 days: How a shared approach in Cape Town helps high-risk babies

By Janet Heard,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Child health, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces

South Africa’s health department is overhauling its framework for disability services. It prompts an important question: When it comes to Cerebral Palsy – a wide-ranging motor disorder with possible comorbidities – what could a standardised package of baby care look like, especially within an overburdened public health system? Spotlight explores a collaborative approach in Cape Town aimed at optimising development during the critical first 1 000 days of life.

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World’s biggest community-led health watchdog falters as US backs out

World’s biggest community-led health watchdog falters as US backs out

By Adiel Ismail,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, Latest, Spotlight

Ritshidze, South Africa’s powerhouse community-led healthcare monitor, is on the brink of shutting down. Experts warn its collapse could unravel years of progress in our clinics – just as worrying new data points to a decline in HIV services.

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How Philani’s amazing ‘mentor mothers’ are bringing hope to struggling moms and children

How Philani’s amazing ‘mentor mothers’ are bringing hope to struggling moms and children

By Sue Segar,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Eastern Cape, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight, Western Cape

Mothers and babies in South Africa can easily fall through the cracks and end up going hungry and not getting the healthcare they need. Sue Segar spent time with an innovative project that is helping thousands such women and kids in parts of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape. Their model has been adopted by organisations in several other countries.

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Government and the private sector should team up to improve healthcare, conference hears

Government and the private sector should team up to improve healthcare, conference hears

By Ufrieda Ho,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Spotlight

Government and the private sector could work together much more effectively to improve healthcare services in South Africa, but the potential of such a partnership remains largely untapped, delegates heard last week at the Hospital Association of South Africa conference.

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In the Spotlight | Amid all the noise, how well is SA’s immunisation programme actually doing

In the Spotlight | Amid all the noise, how well is SA’s immunisation programme actually doing

By Elri Voigt,
Posted in: #InTheSpotlight, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Latest, Spotlight

Childhood immunisation programmes have saved many millions of lives and prevented much suffering. Yet, immunisation programmes have lost momentum over the last decade or so. In this Spotlight special briefing, Elri Voigt unpacks the available data and considers how immunisation efforts might be revitalised.

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Inside The Box with Dr Andy Gray | Public participation in medicines selection and regulation – lacking?

Inside The Box with Dr Andy Gray | Public participation in medicines selection and regulation – lacking?

By Andy Gray,
Posted in: #InsideTheBox, Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Latest, Special Investigations, Spotlight

In several countries, the public is given an opportunity to share their views with regulators before new medicines are registered or to engage with those choosing essential medicines. In South Africa, however, opportunities for such public participation remains limited. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray takes a look at how public participation is handled elsewhere and how it could be improved here.

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Between silence and sirens: Cape Town trauma surgeon Dr Deidre McPherson’s midnight vigils

Between silence and sirens: Cape Town trauma surgeon Dr Deidre McPherson’s midnight vigils

By Biénne Huisman,
Posted in: Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight, Western Cape

Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has one of the busiest emergency centres in the Western Cape. As it turns to the public to raise R20 million for the opening of a new emergency centre, Dr Deidre McPherson chats to Biénne Huisman about the hospital’s trauma frontline.

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Medical devices aren’t regulated in SA, but that is set to change

Medical devices aren’t regulated in SA, but that is set to change

By Catherine Tomlinson,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Latest, Spotlight

Unlike with medicines, and with a few exceptions, South Africa’s regulator does not assess whether diagnostic tests and other medical devices on the market are safe and work as they are supposed to. The regulator has however started down a road that should eventually lead to the regulation of all medical devices in the country. Catherine Tomlinson unpacks the details.

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SA has very low organ donation rates – how can we fix it?

SA has very low organ donation rates – how can we fix it?

By Elri Voigt,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Spotlight

Thousands of people in South Africa are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, but our very low organ donation rates mean that many won’t get a transplant in time. Elri Voigt asks the experts why our donation rates are so low and what can be done about it.

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Bulela Vava | Today’s poor oral health in SA is partly a legacy of apartheid

Bulela Vava | Today’s poor oral health in SA is partly a legacy of apartheid

By Bulela Vava,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Opinions, Spotlight

We need to confront the racialised and class-based structures that still dictate society’s oral health outcomes, argues Dr Bulela Vava as we head toward the end of this year’s National Oral Health Month.

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EDITORIAL | The rot runs deep: Gauteng Health’s dance of impunity betrays the people it is meant to serve

EDITORIAL | The rot runs deep: Gauteng Health’s dance of impunity betrays the people it is meant to serve

By Spotlight Editors,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Editorial, Focus 1, Focus 2, Gauteng, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight

The courts have spoken. The health ombud has issued devastating reports. The Auditor-General has again put damning evidence on the table. Civil society has protested. Yet, the devastating crisis in Gauteng’s health system shows no sign of improvement.

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Cancer court battle rumbles on as Gauteng Health again appeals

Cancer court battle rumbles on as Gauteng Health again appeals

By Ufrieda Ho,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Gauteng, Healthcare system, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight

Activists say the Gauteng department of health’s late appeal to a court judgement that compels it to act on cancer treatment backlogs is raising more questions about what the department believes it stands to lose from not doing as the courts have ruled, reports Ufrieda Ho.

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