One year after the fire at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg there’s damning evidence of missteps and delays in maintaining health and safety standards, sabotage and incompetence in managing the rebuild, and dire knock-on effects for the province’s healthcare system. Ufrieda Ho reports
During her recent budget speech Eastern Cape Health MEC Nkhosazana Meth expressed concern over the number of teenage pregnancies in the province. Health activists are calling for a comprehensive plan to address this, while adolescents interviewed by Spotlight say they need more education on sex and HIV prevention methods. Luvuyo Mehlwana reports.
One of the key recommendations from the National TB Prevalence Survey released last year was to increase “access to TB screening and testing services through outreach programmes using mobile testing and X-ray facilities”. Tiyese Jeranji takes stock of the number of mobile X-ray vans and containers across the country and plans to scale up their use.
Amid several reports of assault on healthcare workers and robberies at health facilities in the Free State, many healthcare workers are fearing for their safety. Refilwe Mochoari visited some of these ‘hotspots’ to see what security measures are in place and spoke to healthcare workers and health authorities about their security and safety concerns.
The Mpumalanga Department of Health is plagued by many challenges ranging from water shortages affecting some of its health facilities, poor medicine distribution, and a spate of assaults and robberies putting healthcare workers at risk. Nthusang Lefafa spoke to unions, opposition parties, and the department about these ongoing challenges and plans to address them.
This month, the Khayelitsha District Hospital will celebrate ten years since it opened its doors. Tiyese Jeranji visited the hospital and spoke to the CEO, some staff members, patients, and health stakeholders about the services the hospital provides, its successes and continuing challenges.
There is nothing humans can do about the fact that everyone dies eventually, but there may be room to do better when it comes to how some doctors, nurses, and care workers break the news of dying and death; and also how they give practical support to a grieving family. Ufrieda Ho looks at what measures are in place to guide healthcare workers, patients, and their families through this process in health facilities.
In February, Stix Morewa Hospital in Selby, Johannesburg sent out a letter to the families of the over 400 mental healthcare users in their care. In this letter, families were reportedly informed that the Gauteng Department of Health will terminate its contract with the hospital by the end of March, which would have meant that the mental health users would have had to be transferred elsewhere. Thabo Molelekwa looks at the developments since then.
One of the great paradoxes in healthcare in South Africa is that, while we have impressive healthcare expertise in the country, most of our provincial health departments are poorly managed. Spotlight editor Marcus Low considers what this means for efforts to build state capacity in general, and for healthcare in particular.
Women and girls seeking abortions are often forced to seek informal, illegal, and unsafe abortions as a result of various systemic barriers. Khanyisa Mapipa, Sibusisiwe Ndlela, and Thokozile Mtsolongo look at the state of abortion services in the public sector in the Eastern Cape.
Despite Eastern Cape Health authorities acknowledging that the continued use of mud clinics is a concern, rural residents still have to make do with these dilapidated clinics. Luvuyo Mehlwana visited some of these mud clinics to speak to some residents and asked the provincial health department about their plans to address this.
The Northern Cape Health Department has been without a permanent department head (HOD) since July 2020 and an acting head has been suspended following his arrest in August last year on charges of fraud and corruption. Organised labour and opposition parties in the province are concerned over the impact that the leadership instability has on healthcare services. Refilwe Mochoari reports.