In South Africa responding to medical emergencies can mean risking your life, possible assault and losing some of your belongings. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated and added to these daily challenges faced by paramedics. Melissa Javan investigates.
Clinic Committees can be a powerful link between the community and primary healthcare facilities. Several clinic committee members however say they have been side-lined in South Africa’s COVID-19 response. Tiyese Jeranji reports.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has called the COVID-19 pandemic the gravest crisis in the country’s democratic history. Now, with the Western Cape and Gauteng making up nearly 64 percent of the country’s total confirmed infections, Kathryn Cleary asked departments of health in both provinces how prepared they are for the coming peak.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to act strongly against any corruption and profiteering from the COVID-19 crisis but the systems in place to guard against this may be falling short. Spotlight looked at preliminary spending figures and asked some experts about how public money can be safeguarded during this time.
Professor Feroza Motara remembers how she felt when the Minister of Health announced in February that the hospital where she works would become a designated COVID-19 hospital. Melissa Javan interviewed her about life and work on the frontlines of South Africa’s COVID-19 response.
Mamelodi Hospital in Pretoria made headlines in May last year when 76-year-old Martha Marais was found tied to a bench in the facility’s Accident and Emergency section. Spotlight visited the hospital to see what has changed.
When Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku was sworn in last year, he committed to turn the department around – a department the Gauteng premier described as ‘on its knees’. Spotlight sat down with Masuku to talk about staff morale, COVID-19, NHI, Mamelodi Hospital, and more.
Alarm bells are still ringing even as the final public NHI hearings hosted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health wraps up in Gauteng this Monday.
As a cleaner at the emergency casualty ward at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg, Sakhile Masombuka has seen a lot of blood and suffering. He chatted to Spotlight about his work.
Amidst concerns over rising neonatal deaths in some health facilities in Gauteng, at least one hospital, Leratong Hospital, has a good story to tell.
Dr Bandile Masuku was recently appointed as MEC for Health in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province. Biénne Huisman asked him about the task ahead.
When it comes to healthcare, Jack Bloom is arguably the most well-known opposition politician in South Africa. Biénne Huisman went to meet the man behind the headlines.