A series of robberies at healthcare facilities in the Eastern Cape has disrupted services, with patients sometimes left waiting outside while clinics limit the number of people allowed in. This follows the provincial health department spending over R700 million on security contracts in the past financial year, reports Luvuyo Mehlwana.
An innovative health programme is thriving and making a difference in the lives of people in a rural Eastern Cape community. Sue Segar spent time with the project, walking with “nomakhayas” from house-to-house and taking a ferry trip across the Xhora river.
The Keready project uses mobile clinics to take healthcare services to rural areas. Sue Segar spent time with the project as they took eye, dental, and other healthcare services to communities in the Eastern Cape.
Following South Africa’s 2024 national and provincial elections, the decisions about the top health jobs in the country’s nine provinces have now all been made. Elri Voigt rounds up the appointments.
Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has appointed Ntandokazi Capa as the province’s new MEC for Health. Luvuyo Mehlwana asked Capa about her vision for healthcare in the province and rounds up some early responses to her appointment from healthcare unions and political parties.
A new lab promises to improve access to dental prostheses in the Eastern Cape, restoring thousands of smiles in the process. Dr Bulela Vava of the Public Oral Health Forum welcomes the development and argues that oral health should not be a privilege of the few.
Luvuyo Mehlwana looks back at the performance of public healthcare services in the Eastern Cape over the last five years – a term characterised by leadership instability, infrastructure problems, financial short-falls, and of course the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some residents in the Eastern Cape have been left frustrated by delays or outright lack of response by Emergency Medical Services in the province. This is in part caused by a chronic shortage of ambulances and paramedics. Recent labour disputes have further complicated the situation. Luvuyo Mehlwana reports.
Nosiphiwo Gunuza from Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape was the first college graduate in her family and is their sole breadwinner. The 43-year-old health worker was recently crowned South Africa’s Rural Nurse of the Year. Biénne Huisman caught up with Gunuza.
Concerns around corruption and whether or not there would be health coverage for foreign nationals were two of the top talking points at a recent public hearing on the National Health Insurance Bill held in the Eastern Cape. Luvuyo Mehlwana reports.
The Eastern Cape Department of Health have for years made headlines for the wrong reasons. A few weeks prior to her recent removal as head of the department, Dr Rolene Wagner made the case that the situation is being turned around. Tiyese Jeranji looks back at Wagner’s presentation at the Rural Health Conference in Chintsa and asks whether the reforms will continue in her absence.
Describing the rutted gravel road between Butterworth and Tafalofefe District Hospital in the Eastern Cape, Dr Bukiwe Spondo uses the word “terrible” at least eighteen times. Biénne Huisman caught up with Spondo, who was recently named rural doctor of the year, to chat about the many challenges of delivering quality healthcare services in South Africa’s rural areas.
