A few meters from the entrance to Philani Clinic in Queenstown, opposite the gate, is a black-walled tavern. On weekdays, it’s as quiet as a church; but on weekends, music bursts out of its dark interior, cars line the street and patrons dance between them, holding beer cans and bottles.
The stories of health care users experiences with the health system as published by Spotlight are devastating. Various factors play a role when patients’ rights are violated, such as poor planning, inadequate HR management, budget cuts, healthcare worker attitudes, medicine stock-outs, poor policy implementation, and well-intentioned policies that fail to address the rural context.
Every province and district should have an AIDS council. These AIDS councils are supposed to bring everyone (government, organised labour, business, civil society) together to jointly plot our response to HIV, TB and STIs.
A community caregivers project for rural KwaZulu-Natal AIDS orphans and vulnerable children hangs in the balance as donor money from the United States dries up.
In this issue: A profile of Free State MEC for Health Butana Khompela; A guide to making AIDS councils work; TAC on the state of our hospitals and much more! Download your free copy now.
