Dr Keith Cloete became head of the Western Cape Health Department on April 1 2020, two weeks into South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown level 5. Biénne Huisman asked him about the long road from a childhood in District Six to the blur of meetings in the Western Cape’s COVID-19 engine room.
Even as the need for a more equitable health system is being demonstrated, news has broken of large-scale corruption in the procurement of PPE. This makes it difficult for a population worn down by corruption to envisage the transformation of the health system into a system of contracting and procurement under National Health Insurance, writes Sasha Stevenson.
Plans like South Africa’s new Human Resources for Health Strategy 2030 must be backed by political support and appropriate, capacitated institutional structures to bring about meaningful change, argue Manya van Ryneveld, Uta Lehmann and Helen Schneider.
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.
When Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku was sworn in last year, he committed to turn the department around – a department the Gauteng premier described as ‘on its knees’. Spotlight sat down with Masuku to talk about staff morale, COVID-19, NHI, Mamelodi Hospital, and more.
A panel discussion on the National Health Insurance (NHI) during The Gathering 2020 zoomed in on mistrust as a fundamental crack in South Africa’s engagement and discourse on NHI and the NHI Bill.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize says South Africa desperately needs to address the increase in the prevalence of Non-Communicable Diseases as measures to address NCDs to date have not had enough of an impact.
Alicestine October buried herself in mountains of budget documents and spoke to the experts to figure out what Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s new budget means for health. Here is what she found.
Alarm bells are still ringing even as the final public NHI hearings hosted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health wraps up in Gauteng this Monday.
The recent public hearings on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill in Khayelitsha drew a considerable crowd in the CBD Hall on Wednesday. Nasief Manie was there to capture the proceedings for Spotlight in pictures.
The public hearing on the NHI Bill in Khayelitsha this week drew a big crowd from areas like Manenberg, Elsies River and Khayelitsha in what turned out to be a robust public hearing with strong political undertones.
If these public hearings on the NHI Bill is democracy in action – we are in trouble, writes Alicestine October.
