A senior doctor who worked at Zithulele Hospital in the Eastern Cape for close to a decade has been instructed to report to the Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital in Mthatha. Some Zithulele hospital staff and community members last week protested the move. Sue Segar reports.
After the ANC received less than 41% of the votes in last week’s national elections, negotiations are now underway that will determine how and by who South Africa is governed. Ministerial posts, including the country’s top health job, might be on the negotiating table. Spotlight considers the candidates for the post of South Africa’s Minister of Health.
Dr Moherndran Archary’s research has helped shape South African health policy, most notably the rollout of better HIV treatments for children and babies. Spotlight’s Biénne Huisman chatted to him about the state of HIV treatment for kids and some exciting prospects on the horizon.
Several political parties have pledged to plug shortages of healthcare staff at government hospitals and clinics by training more health workers. They’re right to be concerned with understaffing, but are they putting the right solutions on the table? Jesse Copelyn investigates.
KwaZulu-Natal is a high-stakes province that seems set for substantial political shake-ups come 29 May. Whichever way the pie gets divvied up though, healthcare is a matter of life-and-death. Ufrieda Ho asked five political parties about their plans for health in the province. Only one responded.
Spotlight reached out to different political parties in the Eastern Cape to get their perspectives on how they plan to jack up healthcare in a province where thousands of people still have difficulty accessing healthcare. Only three parties responded. We zoom in on their views on crippled emergency medical services and ballooning medico-legal claims.
What is at stake in South Africa’s upcoming provincial elections when it comes to healthcare? Ufrieda Ho put questions to five political parties about their plans to get Gauteng Health on track to better healthcare services after the polls. Only two parties responded .
Dr Karl le Roux, former chair of the Rural Doctors’ Association of South Africa, says the time has come for him to take his knowledge and experience to the national political arena. He is now hoping for a seat in parliament on the DA’s ticket. Sue Segar caught up with him.
Professor Ntobeko Ntusi may be softspoken, but he is not afraid to stand by his strongly held views. As he is set to take up the hot-seat at the country’s primary health research funder, he tells Spotlight’s Biénne Huisman about his background and his priorities for the new job.
Diabetes is the second leading cause of death in South Africa after tuberculosis, according to Statistics South Africa. It is the leading cause of death in women. Yet, despite being a major driver of deaths and illness, we do not have a clear picture of how many people in the country have diabetes or how many people are receiving diabetes care. This leaves our health system ill-equipped to handle the growing diabetes crisis.
In response to high levels of codeine abuse in South Africa, health authorities have been developing a plan to track the supply of the drug from manufacturers all the way to patients. In this Spotlight feature, Jesse Copelyn explores why people get hooked on codeine, and how the new project could combat the problem.
COVID-19-related factors resulted in several years of lower-than-normal rates of the flu, but experts say that is now something of the past. As this year’s flu season gets under way, Elri Voigt asks several local experts what their expectations are, which flu vaccines are available this year, and whether we should be concerned about new strains of bird flu.