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In-depth: What’s behind the increase in malnutrition deaths among Free State infants?

In-depth: What’s behind the increase in malnutrition deaths among Free State infants?

By Refilwe Mochoari,
Posted in: Child health, Free State, Healthcare system, Latest, Provinces

When Free State Health MEC Montseng Tsiu took to the podium in April this year to deliver her budget speech, she said there was an increase in deaths of children under five mostly due to severe acute malnutrition which has increased from 3.1% in the 2020/21 financial year to 9.6% in 2021/22. This meant of all the children admitted to the province’s hospitals for acute malnutrition, 48 died in 2020/21 and 86 in 2021/22. Refilwe Mochoari unpacks the numbers and asked authorities, experts, and community leaders what can be done.

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In-depth: Have 4 years of administration reduced medicine stockouts in North West?

In-depth: Have 4 years of administration reduced medicine stockouts in North West?

By Nthusang Lefafa,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Healthcare system, Latest, North West, Provinces

Public healthcare facilities in the North West have been plagued by chronic medicines stockouts for years. Now, as the province’s health department is again taking the reins after four years under administration by the National Department of Health, Nthusang Lefafa asks what progress has or has not been made in that most basic of healthcare functions, providing people with the medicines they need.

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Rural Doctor of the Year: Craig Parker – the doctor-engineer who created a COVID lifeline for rural areas

Rural Doctor of the Year: Craig Parker – the doctor-engineer who created a COVID lifeline for rural areas

By Biénne Huisman,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Eastern Cape, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces

A trained engineer and medical doctor, Dr Craig Parker created an oxygen device that was an important lifeline to patients in rural Eastern Cape at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month at the Rural Health Conference in Oudtshoorn, Parker received the Rural Doctor of the Year Award for 2022. Bienne Huisman chatted to Parker about the device and his life as a rural doctor.

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Opinion: Better data is first step in improving services for persons with disabilities

Opinion: Better data is first step in improving services for persons with disabilities

By Maryke Bezuidenhout,
Posted in: COVID-19, Healthcare system, Latest

South Africa ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities in 2007 – but the data needed to track the implementation of the convention in South Africa is often incomparable across sectors, of low quality, or completely lacking. This limits civil society’s ability to hold the government accountable and makes it impossible to ensure equity for marginalised groups in how government plans, budgets, and implements services, argues Rural Rehab South Africa’s outgoing chair, Maryke Bezuidenhout.

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In-depth: Why only some public sector patients can access a key breast cancer drug

In-depth: Why only some public sector patients can access a key breast cancer drug

By Elri Voigt,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Healthcare system, Latest, Provinces, Reproductive Health, SRHR, Western Cape

A potentially life-saving or life-extending breast cancer medicine is available to public sector patients in several of South Africa’s provinces, but not in the Western Cape. Elri Voigt asks what is behind the Western Cape government’s decision.

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In-depth: What is behind the Eastern Cape’s nurse training crisis?

In-depth: What is behind the Eastern Cape’s nurse training crisis?

By Luvuyo Mehlwana,
Posted in: Eastern Cape, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces

Lecturers doing administrative work, nursing student accommodation found to be uninhabitable, frequent break-ins at some campuses, an exodus of staff since 2017, and some campuses with no students – are among the challenges at Lilitha nursing college in the Eastern Cape that the provincial legislature’s health committee flagged after an oversight visit. Luvuyo Mehlwana reports.

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Healthcare problems persist at ‘ideal clinics’, studies show

Healthcare problems persist at ‘ideal clinics’, studies show

By Elri Voigt,
Posted in: Gauteng, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, NHI, Provinces

The ideal clinic programme has been one of government’s key healthcare interventions in recent years. An extensive review conducted of the initiative in Gauteng suggests that outcomes are mixed. Elri Voigt reports on findings from four studies on the programme presented at last week’s Public Health Association of South Africa conference in Durban.

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TB treatment to be shortened to 4 months for most kids

TB treatment to be shortened to 4 months for most kids

By Catherine Tomlinson,
Posted in: Edition 14: Tuberculosis, Edition 7: TB, Healthcare system, Latest, TB

South Africa last published comprehensive guidelines for the management of childhood tuberculosis (TB) in 2013. Almost a decade later, the guidelines are being updated to recommend a shortened TB treatment regimen for most children with pulmonary TB. Catherine Tomlinson reports.

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In-depth: Codeine regulation – a tussle between pain relief and addiction

In-depth: Codeine regulation – a tussle between pain relief and addiction

By Elri Voigt,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Healthcare system, Latest

Whether a pharmacist suggests it for treating headaches or whether a doctor prescribes it for managing post-surgical pain, chances are good that at some point you’ve taken a pain pill containing the opioid codeine. But since codeine can be addictive and withdrawal symptoms severe, regulation of the drug in South Africa has turned into a headache. Elri Voigt takes an in-depth look at the complexities of codeine regulation.

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Patients paid the price as colostomy bags ran out at Gauteng hospital

Patients paid the price as colostomy bags ran out at Gauteng hospital

By Thabo Molelekwa,
Posted in: Gauteng, Healthcare system, Latest, Provinces

From around March to June this year, there was a shortage of colostomy bags at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto. This meant that public sector patients were, at times, sent home with too few or the wrong bags. Thabo Molelekwa reports.

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Opinion: Mothers and babies pay the price for medical xenophobia

Opinion: Mothers and babies pay the price for medical xenophobia

By Thembi Mahlathi and Sibusisiwe Ndlela,
Posted in: Access to Medicines, Child health, Healthcare system, Latest

Pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children should have free healthcare services, irrespective of nationality and documentation status. It is an entitlement that our law already affords them and one that we will continue to defend writes Thembi Mahlathi and Sibusisiwe Ndlela.

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Climate change can set back maternal health, says researcher

Climate change can set back maternal health, says researcher

By Ufrieda Ho,
Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, Reproductive Health

Researchers around the world are drawing an ever-more distinct line between rising global temperatures and negative effects on maternal, foetal, and infant health. One of these researchers is Professor Matthew Chersich of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Research Institute. Ufrieda Ho chatted to Chersich after he delivered his inaugural lecture at the end of August.

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