The COVID-19 pandemic has forced mental health practitioners to rethink and adapt how they provide mental health services amidst daily reports of COVID-19 infections and deaths and under the constraints of the national lockdown. Melissa Javan asked mental health practitioners about how their lives have changed.
The Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) recently hosted an online webinar focusing on social accountability in the nursing education. Professor Laetitia Rispel, SA Research chair on the Health Workforce at Wits, delivered the opening address on challenges facing the nursing profession. We publish an edited extract.
As South Africa’s COVID-19 numbers continues to rise, long-simmering healthcare worker complaints are boiling over. Tiyese Jeranji spoke to trade union representatives from Hospersa, Denosa, Nehawu and YNITU about salary disputes, staff shortages, healthcare workers safety, psychological strain, and access to personal protective equipment.
As COVID-19 case numbers continue to rise, so does the need for hospital beds. Kathryn Cleary explores the agreements that will see some public sector COVID-19 patients going to private hospitals and asks what this means for NHI.
The Northern Cape Health Department has come under fire from NEHAWU, the DA, residents and healthcare workers for not testing enough and dragging its feet with its COVID-19 response. Refilwe Mekoa and Alicestine October investigate.
The substantial relaxation of South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown measures from today was probably both inevitable and the right decision. But with ICU capacity in the Western Cape already stretched, and infections in the province rising rapidly, one or two measures may need to be reconsidered, argues Marcus Low.
Health and safety officers play a critical role in keeping hospitals safe. Tiyese Jeranji spoke to Jan Engelbrecht, a health and safety officer at Groote Schuur Hospital where 69 staff members have tested positive for COVID-19.
What the models predict about COVID-19. But beware – soothsaying has a checkered history.
By Tuesday 19 May the Free State has conducted 19 834 COVID-19 tests. The province recorded 165 confirmed cases, 118 recoveries and six deaths. Spotlight spoke to MEC for Health Montseng Tsiu and Head of the Free State Health Department Dr David Motau about the province’s COVID-19-response.
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.
A residential facility for older persons in the Western Cape this week recorded a COVID-19 related death, while a number of new infections were reported at another facility in the province. Elri Voigt asks whether everything is in place to protect our older persons from the expected surge in COVID-19 cases.
The two Netcare private hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal hardest hit by COVID-19 outbreaks, reopened this week with lessons that there’s no room to drop the ball when it comes to infection control. UFRIEDA HO reports.
