Interview: “The only good TB bacillus is a dead one”, says UCT’s Prof Valerie Mizrahi

By Biénne Huisman, September 20, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, TB, TB

Professor Valerie Mizrahi, a world-leading tuberculosis researcher and director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town, is retiring at the end of the year. Biénne Huisman sat down with Mizrahi to talk about her journey in TB research, passing the baton to a new generation of researchers, and how she helped build a research ecosystem that brings together specialists across the basic, clinical, and public health sciences.

Interview: “The only good TB bacillus is a dead one”, says UCT’s Prof Valerie Mizrahi

Concerns raised at public health conference over freezing of healthcare worker posts

By Luvuyo Mehlwana, September 18, 2023

Posted in: Eastern Cape, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces

The National Treasury’s Cost Containment Letter sent to government departments instructing, among others, the freezing of posts was one of the big themes underlying talks about building South Africa’s healthcare worker capacity at the Public Health Association of South Africa’s conference held recently in Gqeberha. Luvuyo Mehlwana reports.

Tags: Eastern Cape Eastern Cape Department of Health featured health budgets healthcare workers national treasury Public Health Association of South Africa public health sector

Concerns raised at public health conference over freezing of healthcare worker posts

Orthopaedic surgery: What is behind SA’s long waiting lists?

By Tiyese Jeranji, September 15, 2023

Posted in: Eastern Cape, Free State, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, KwaZulu-Natal, Latest, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Provinces, Western Cape

As of last year, there were 3 449 people waiting on orthopaedic surgery in five of South Africa’s nine provinces. Waiting times in these five provinces ranged from two weeks to over five years. In the Eastern Cape, it can take up to ten years for people to get specific types of orthopaedic surgery. Tiyese Jeranji looks at the numbers and unpacks what it means for healthcare workers and people waiting for orthopaedic surgery.

Tags: arthroplasty Dr Joe Phaahla elective surgeries featured Frere Hospital Groote Schuur Hospital hip replacements medical negligence medico-legal cases musculoskeletal conditions orthopaedic orthopaedic care orthopaedic surgeons public healthcare system surgical procedures surgical waiting lists

Orthopaedic surgery: What is behind SA’s long waiting lists?

Hospital Histories: The many lives that started at Mowbray Maternity

By Biénne Huisman, September 5, 2023

Posted in: Child health, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest

The modernist five-storey Mowbray Maternity Hospital sits on a swathe of Cape Town’s earliest contested colonial farm land, earmarked by Jan Van Riebeeck in 1657. Biénne Huisman visited the hospital to learn about its history and its continuing role in helping mothers and babies in the 21st century.

Tags: access to healthcare child and maternal health COVID-19 featured HIV Hospital Histories Kangeroo Mother Care maternity care guidelines Midwife Obstetrics miscarriage Mowbray Maternity Hospital neonatal deaths neonatal unit NICU Public Health TB

Hospital Histories: The many lives that started at Mowbray Maternity

Women in Health: Vaccine safety Prof on her passion for making a difference

By Elri Voigt, September 1, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, many committees and organisations were working around the clock to prepare the country for the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. Professor Hannelie Meyer, a pharmacist-turned-academic and later vaccine advocate, served on several of these committees. Elri Voigt spoke to Meyer about the pandemic, the mottos that guide her, and being an unapologetic workaholic.

Tags: COVID-19 COVID-19 vaccine safety surveillance network COVID-19 vaccines Department of Health Department of Public Health Pharmacy and Management featured HPV vaccine Human Papilloma Virus immunisation National Advisory Group on Immunisation National Immunisation Safety Expert Committee SAHPRA SAVIC Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University South African Vaccination and Immunisation Centre (SAVIC)vaccination vaccine hesitancy vaccine safety vaccines World Health Organization

Women in Health: Vaccine safety Prof on her passion for making a difference

OPINION: We are short-changing women with budget cuts, corruption, and underspending in health

By Matshidiso Lencoasa, August 25, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Reproductive Health

Though budget cuts impact the health system’s ability to provide quality services to the 85% of people in South Africa estimated to rely on public healthcare, women are doubly burdened by these cuts owing to their unequal reliance on public health services. Women have a disproportionate risk and prevalence of HIV/AIDS and more differentiated health needs, including those for reproductive and maternal health. This Women’s Month is an opportune moment to reflect on how much we spend on healthcare and the quality of that spending which can be powerful measures to help create a public healthcare system that narrows the gender gap, writes Matshidiso Lencoasa.

Tags: Access to Health Corruption in Health featured gender-responsive budgeting health budget health budget cuts healthcare funding maternal and reproductive health national treasury public health system Social and Cultural Rights underspending in health United Nations Committee on Economic World Economic Forum

OPINION: We are short-changing women with budget cuts, corruption, and underspending in health

Women in Health: Sr Wattie – the midwife from District Six who heeded the call to nurse and deliver

By Biénne Huisman, August 23, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare Workers, Latest

For decades, most stories from Cape Town’s District Six started with – “I was born at Peninsula Maternity Hospital!” The Peninsula Maternity Hospital was established in 1921 as a training hospital specialising in midwifery. It closed down in 1992. On the day of its closure, a group of nurses climbed up to the hospital’s roof to take a last look at Table Mountain and the surrounds where they served so many. Among them was sister Patience Watlington, or Sr Wattie, as many referred to her. Biénne Huisman sat down with the 80-year-old nursing veteran as she reflected on life as a midwife in District Six.

Tags: District Six clinic featured healthcare workers maternal health midwife midwifery Mowbray Maternity Hospital nurses nursing Peninsula Maternity Hospital Sr Patience Watlington Sr Wattie Western Cape Department of Health Women in Health

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Women in Health: Sr Wattie – the midwife from District Six who heeded the call to nurse and deliver

The good doctor: Mark Blaylock on finding meaning back at Manguzi

By Sue Segar, August 21, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces

In December 2008, Dr Mark Blaylock left South Africa after a high-profile spat with then-Health MEC of KwaZulu-Natal Peggy Nkonyeni. The affair was sparked by Blaylock’s colleague Colin Pfaff being charged with misconduct for sourcing funding for antiretroviral drugs for pregnant women living with HIV. Four years later, Blaylock was back at Manguzi District Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal. Sue Segar chatted to Blaylock about his years outside of South Africa, returning to Manguzi, and how healthcare in KwaZulu-Natal has changed over the years.

Tags: AIDS Denialism dolutegravir Dr Mark Blaylock featured healthcare workers HIV KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health Manguzi District Hospital Peggy Nkonyeni PMTCT rural health rural healthcare South African HIV Clinicians Society

The good doctor: Mark Blaylock on finding meaning back at Manguzi

Surgeries delayed at Charlotte Maxeke as key machine decommissioned before replacements are ready

By Ufrieda Ho, August 17, 2023

Posted in: Gauteng, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces

Staff say patients at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital in need of vascular surgery face a three-month wait for life-saving surgery because of what some staff are calling “fishy” operational management and bad planning. According to hospital management, however, patients will be diverted to other hospitals during this period. Ufrieda Ho reports.

Tags: angio machine Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital featured Gauteng Department of Health health contracts health procurement imaging medical equipment public health facilities Steve Biko Academic Hospital Tecmed vascular vascular diseases

Surgeries delayed at Charlotte Maxeke as key machine decommissioned before replacements are ready

TB contact tracing helps save lives – this is how it works in SA

By Tiyese Jeranji, August 16, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare Workers, Latest, TB, TB

Tracing the close contacts of people ill with tuberculosis (TB) and offering them TB preventive therapy is part of South Africa’s strategy to fight TB. A recent analysis found that such an approach of tracing household contacts and providing them with TB preventive treatment is cost-effective and would – by 2025 – cut deaths by 35% among household contacts of all ages and people living with HIV. In light of these new findings, Tiyese Jeranji assesses the state of contact tracing in South Africa’s public healthcare system.

Tags: community healthcare workers Department of Health DHIS Dr Norbert Ndjeka featured public health facilities Right to Care TB TB contact tracing TB prevention TB preventive therapy TB response TB transmission the Tuberculosis Platform at the South Africa Medical Research Council Unitaid World Health Organization

TB contact tracing helps save lives – this is how it works in SA

Women in health: “No one taught me how to treat a sick system,” says leading young Professor

By Biénne Huisman, August 11, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, Western Cape

In high school, a guidance councillor told Salome Maswime that she would never be accepted at medical school. Today, she is a professor and head of Global Surgery at the University of Cape Town. Biénne Huisman chatted to Maswime about her work on safe surgery, her remarkable career, and being the only black woman in the room.

Tags: Centre for Global Surgery Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at UCT featured Global Surgery Groote Schuur Hospital Obstetrics and Gynaecology Prof Salome Maswime Science Oscars surgery UCT Faculty of Health Sciences Women in Health

Women in health: “No one taught me how to treat a sick system,” says leading young Professor

Analysis: SA’s new mental health plan and the problem of stigma

By Nthusang Lefafa, August 3, 2023

Posted in: Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Mental Health

Mental illnesses and the labels that go with these illnesses are often associated with stigma, which in turn influences health-seeking behaviour and adherence to treatment. Nthusang Lefafa looks at how South Africa’s National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2023 – 2030 addresses stigma and asked some experts for their views.

Tags: access to mental health services bipolar disorder featured Joe Phaahla mental health budgets mental health services National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2023 – 2030 National Policy Framework for Mental Health psychiatrists psycho-social support psychologists public health sector SAFMH Sterkfontein Psychiatric Hospital Stigma