Clinical associates praised at rural health conference, but questions remain over government backing

South Africa faces chronic healthcare worker shortages and the country’s Human Resources for Health Strategy 2030 has warned of an impending healthcare worker crisis. The shortages are particularly acute in some rural areas. One part of the solution that was the talk of the recently held Rural Health Conference, is to employ more clinical associates. Tiyese Jeranji reports.

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Patients bear brunt of worsening conditions at some Free State clinics, report shows

A recently published report by the community-led clinic monitoring project, Ritshidze shows that while there have been pockets of improvements at some clinics in the Free State, there are key issues on which facilities’ performance has worsened, especially for people living with HIV. Refilwe Mochoari unpacks the report’s findings zooming in on the situation at Bloemspruit Clinic in Mangaung.

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NORTH WEST HEALTH: The hits and misses of the section 100 intervention

The North West Health Department was placed under administration in 2018 following several governance failures and allegations of fraud and corruption that resulted in widespread service delivery protests. Now, almost four years later as the period under administration is set to come to an end, Nthusang Lefafa asks what has improved under administration and what has not.

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In-depth: What contraceptives are available in SA and which ones are most popular?

There are a variety of tools available today to prevent pregnancy including pills, intrauterine devices, subdermal implants, injections, condoms, male and female sterilisation, and emergency contraception. Statistics suggest that people in South Africa do, in principle at least, have access to and are aware of these contraceptive methods, albeit not at the desired levels. Elna Schütz looks at what contraceptive methods are available and makes some surprising discoveries along the way about which ones are most popular.

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Staff shortages and long waiting times plague KZN health, report finds

While KwaZulu-Natal is doing comparatively well on key HIV indicators, the public healthcare system in the province is plagued by staff shortages, long waiting times, poor tuberculosis infection control, and in some cases, dysfunctional filing systems. This is according to a new report from community-led monitoring group Ritshidze. Elri Voigt reports.

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In-depth: Getting Gauteng’s HIV and TB response back on track

From March to July this year, the Gauteng Department of Health recorded 57 848 TB tests – a decrease of about 30 000 tests compared to the same period last year. The province performed better with HIV testing, although the HIV response has faltered in other areas. Melissa Javan makes sense of the province’s numbers and speaks to activists and community health workers about the impact of lockdown on their services and plans to get things back on track.  

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