Morphine shortages leave patients in pain
South Africa has only one public sector supplier of resized packages of morphine powder and the company’s failure to deliver since July has left some patients in unspeakable agony. Ufrieda Ho reports.
·
Healthcare System
Interactive Data Dashboards
Track the HIV & TB response
Live indicators, province breakdowns and downloadable data.
-
What’s behind the increase in malnutrition deaths among Free State infants?
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…
·
-
Have 4 years of administration reduced medicine stockouts in North West?
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…
·
-
Rural Doctor of the Year: Craig Parker – the doctor-engineer who created a COVID lifeline for rural areas
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…
·
-
Opinion: Better data is first step in improving services for persons with disabilities
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…
·
-
Why only some public sector patients can access a key breast cancer drug
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.
·
-
What is behind the Eastern Cape’s nurse training crisis?
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.
·
-
Healthcare problems persist at ‘ideal clinics’, studies show
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.
·
-
TB treatment to be shortened to 4 months for most kids
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.
·
-
Binning of COVID-19 jabs a ‘shocking indictment’, says health expert
COVID-19 vaccine doses destined to be binned next month are “a shocking indictment” and questions need to be asked about just how effective the country’s vaccination drive has been, some public health experts say. Ufrieda Ho reports.
·
-
Codeine regulation – a tussle between pain relief and addiction
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…
·
-
Patients paid the price as colostomy bags ran out at Gauteng hospital
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.
·
