With tenacity, teamwork and a plan of action, a group of community health workers in the Eastern Cape show just how effective they can be in bringing better healthcare to a rural community. UFRIEDA HO met these local heroes.
A volunteer healthcare worker tells the story of a young boy confined to his bed since he was a young child, as a result of the shortage of physiotherapists and occupational therapists in the rural Eastern Cape. This is a first-person account of the rigours of rural health care, in which it takes extraordinary effort to secure even the most basic services.
Keiskamma Trust, an Eastern Cape based health organisation, praised around the world for its incredible community work which has saved thousands of lives, is in danger after funding cuts. Ntsiki Mpulo spent time with a community worker to give us a glimpse into the important work they do in a province where the health system is unable to deliver.
Eastern Cape Health Department fails to complete clinic projects promised by the Minister of Health.
A few meters from the entrance to Philani Clinic in Queenstown, opposite the gate, is a black-walled tavern. On weekdays, it’s as quiet as a church; but on weekends, music bursts out of its dark interior, cars line the street and patrons dance between them, holding beer cans and bottles.
The stories of health care users experiences with the health system as published by Spotlight are devastating. Various factors play a role when patients’ rights are violated, such as poor planning, inadequate HR management, budget cuts, healthcare worker attitudes, medicine stock-outs, poor policy implementation, and well-intentioned policies that fail to address the rural context.
The hospital is full. Two young girls lie on trolleys in the main hallway. They are wrapped in pink blankets; drips come out of
their arms and hang on the walls. One looks in severe agony. She calls out for a nurse again and again. heir mother tells
us that they arrived at the hospital seven hours ago and have yet to leave the hallway.
Dr Sandile Buthelezi was recently appointed as the new head (CEO) of the South African National AIDS Council. His appointment follows the suspicious non-renewal of the previous CEO’s contract Dr Fareed Abdullah and unsuccessful attempts to lure Eastern Cape head of health Dr Thobile Mbengashe to the post.
By Marcus Low Tuberculosis (TB) infection control measures in some South African public sector clinics fall woefully short. This is according to an infection control survey that was published by…
By Mluleki Marongo, SECTION27 Researcher – If you call an ambulance in Johannesburg, there’s a good chance you will be in a hospital within 45 minutes; if you call an ambulance in rural Eastern Cape, you will probably die before it arrives. Sadly, that has been the case for decades.
