Mafikeng Provincial Hospital, a critical public healthcare facility in the North West, is facing a slew of challenges from broken and faulty medical equipment, long waiting times for surgeries, to chronic shortages of skilled nursing staff. Nthusang Lefafa reports on efforts underway to get the hospital up to scratch.
Medicines are among the most powerful tools in healthcare, but they also come with risks. As we mark #MedSafetyWeek, Mr Vincent Tlala, registrar and CEO of the South African Pharmacy Council, argues that the safe use of medicines is a shared responsibility, and is not only up to pharmacists.
Hypertension is poorly managed in South Africa. Remarkable findings from a study in rural KwaZulu-Natal suggest a compelling alternative to the current model of clinic-based care – using community healthcare workers to monitor people’s blood pressure in their own homes. Elri Voigt reports.
Over the last decade, there’s been growing evidence that people can have TB without having any symptoms. But there is still much uncertainty over how such asymptomatic TB functions in the body and how infectious it is. An ambitious study, set to be conducted in South Africa and Indonesia, is trying to find some answers. Elri Voigt reports.
A landmark ruling from the Supreme Court of Appeal means specially trained pharmacists will soon be allowed to dispense antiretrovirals without a doctor’s script. Pharmacists with the required training will need special permits from the director general of health. While no pharmacists yet hold these permits, Catherine Tomlinson reports that they may be able to start applying for them as soon as next month.
South Africa’s health department is overhauling its framework for disability services. It prompts an important question: When it comes to Cerebral Palsy – a wide-ranging motor disorder with possible comorbidities – what could a standardised package of baby care look like, especially within an overburdened public health system? Spotlight explores a collaborative approach in Cape Town aimed at optimising development during the critical first 1 000 days of life.
Mothers and babies in South Africa can easily fall through the cracks and end up going hungry and not getting the healthcare they need. Sue Segar spent time with an innovative project that is helping thousands such women and kids in parts of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape. Their model has been adopted by organisations in several other countries.
Government and the private sector could work together much more effectively to improve healthcare services in South Africa, but the potential of such a partnership remains largely untapped, delegates heard last week at the Hospital Association of South Africa conference.
Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town has one of the busiest emergency centres in the Western Cape. As it turns to the public to raise R20 million for the opening of a new emergency centre, Dr Deidre McPherson chats to Biénne Huisman about the hospital’s trauma frontline.
Thousands of people in South Africa are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, but our very low organ donation rates mean that many won’t get a transplant in time. Elri Voigt asks the experts why our donation rates are so low and what can be done about it.
We need to confront the racialised and class-based structures that still dictate society’s oral health outcomes, argues Dr Bulela Vava as we head toward the end of this year’s National Oral Health Month.
The courts have spoken. The health ombud has issued devastating reports. The Auditor-General has again put damning evidence on the table. Civil society has protested. Yet, the devastating crisis in Gauteng’s health system shows no sign of improvement.
