Waiting is not an option in the first 1000 days: How a shared approach in Cape Town helps high-risk babies

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Child health, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces

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.

Waiting is not an option in the first 1000 days: How a shared approach in Cape Town helps high-risk babies

World’s biggest community-led health watchdog falters as US backs out

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, Latest, Spotlight

Ritshidze, South Africa’s powerhouse community-led healthcare monitor, is on the brink of shutting down. Experts warn its collapse could unravel years of progress in our clinics – just as worrying new data points to a decline in HIV services.

World’s biggest community-led health watchdog falters as US backs out

How Philani’s amazing ‘mentor mothers’ are bringing hope to struggling moms and children

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Eastern Cape, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight, Western Cape

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.

How Philani’s amazing ‘mentor mothers’ are bringing hope to struggling moms and children

Government and the private sector should team up to improve healthcare, conference hears

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Spotlight

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.

Government and the private sector should team up to improve healthcare, conference hears

In the Spotlight | Amid all the noise, how well is SA’s immunisation programme actually doing

Posted in: #InTheSpotlight, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Latest, Spotlight

Childhood immunisation programmes have saved many millions of lives and prevented much suffering. Yet, immunisation programmes have lost momentum over the last decade or so. In this Spotlight special briefing, Elri Voigt unpacks the available data and considers how immunisation efforts might be revitalised.

In the Spotlight | Amid all the noise, how well is SA’s immunisation programme actually doing

Inside The Box with Dr Andy Gray | Public participation in medicines selection and regulation – lacking?

Posted in: #InsideTheBox, Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Latest, Special Investigations, Spotlight

In several countries, the public is given an opportunity to share their views with regulators before new medicines are registered or to engage with those choosing essential medicines. In South Africa, however, opportunities for such public participation remains limited. In his latest Inside The Box column, Dr Andy Gray takes a look at how public participation is handled elsewhere and how it could be improved here.

Inside The Box with Dr Andy Gray | Public participation in medicines selection and regulation – lacking?

From the heart of the Winelands, Pebbles Kitchen is helping fill many young tummies with nutritious meals

Posted in: Child health, Focus 1, Focus 2, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight

Despite the country’s relative wealth, South Africa has shockingly high levels of childhood malnutrition and stunting. Biénne Huisman spends some time with a small team who have made it their business to bring solutions to the table and to get nutritious meals to the kids of farm workers in the Western Cape.

From the heart of the Winelands, Pebbles Kitchen is helping fill many young tummies with nutritious meals

Between silence and sirens: Cape Town trauma surgeon Dr Deidre McPherson’s midnight vigils

Posted in: Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight, Western Cape

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.

Between silence and sirens: Cape Town trauma surgeon Dr Deidre McPherson’s midnight vigils

Medical devices aren’t regulated in SA, but that is set to change

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Latest, Spotlight

Unlike with medicines, and with a few exceptions, South Africa’s regulator does not assess whether diagnostic tests and other medical devices on the market are safe and work as they are supposed to. The regulator has however started down a road that should eventually lead to the regulation of all medical devices in the country. Catherine Tomlinson unpacks the details.

Medical devices aren’t regulated in SA, but that is set to change

SA has very low organ donation rates – how can we fix it?

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Spotlight

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.

SA has very low organ donation rates – how can we fix it?

Bulela Vava | Today’s poor oral health in SA is partly a legacy of apartheid

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Focus 1, Focus 2, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Opinions, Spotlight

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.

Bulela Vava | Today’s poor oral health in SA is partly a legacy of apartheid

EDITORIAL | The rot runs deep: Gauteng Health’s dance of impunity betrays the people it is meant to serve

Posted in: Access to Medicines, Editorial, Focus 1, Focus 2, Gauteng, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, Provinces, Spotlight

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.