Hospitals in crisis SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
Patients are dying unnecessarily because South Africa'€™s public hospitals are over-burdened, under-staffed and poorly managed.
Health Systems
Read More » Hospitals in crisis SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
How to grow your own nurses
Almost 10 years ago Eben Donges Hospital in Worcester acknowledged a looming nursing crisis and established a groundbreaking learnership programme that has uplifted the community and averted massive nursing vacancies.
There’s no room
The hospital referral system is failing, and patients are getting stuck in the huge gaps between clinics and hospitals, district hospitals and more specialized regional and tertiary hospitals.
‘Fire Manto’ campaign gains momentum
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) battle to oust health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has gained backing from six political parties.
‘Grave dangers to proposal’ – Health Professions Amendment Bill
The Health Professions Council of South Africa [HPCSA] has always been the last to come to the rescue of the public. This is according to the South African Medical Doctors Association [SAMA].
SAMA is opposing the proposed Health Professions Amendment Bill which would give the Health minister powers to appoint members to the council and its professional boards.
Brothel VCT intervention yields positive results
Densely populated, crime ridden; filthy and full of brothels is how Hillbrow is usually described. Sex workers thrive. The rate of sexually transmitted infections is high in such areas. Yet an HIV Voluntary Counselling and Testing programme introduced a few years ago is showing positive results. And a number of women in this area celebrate Women'€™s Day with vigour '€“ knowing that they have a clean bill of health.
Flying service helps to restore sight
For 40 years, the SA Red Cross Air Mercy Service has been flying volunteer health professionals to rural hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape.
Education sector ill-prepared for teachers and students with HIV
Education departments worldwide are ill-prepared to deal with teachers and children who are infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS report
Class action against Health Department
The parents of the babies who died during a power failure at East London'€™s Cecilia Makiwane Hospital are now considering a class action against the Health Department. This follows the health minister'€™s denial that the babies'€™ deaths were a result of the hospital'€™s negligence.
Speaking with the blood lady Living with AIDS # 266
Nine years ago, Dr Loyiso Mpuntsha was rejected as a blood donor. Today she is the new Chief Executive Officer of the South African National Blood Service, the same organisation that did not want her blood '€“ solely because she is black.
AIDS successes bring new challenges
Plenty of success stories were exchanged this week as beneficiaries from the world'€™s biggest HIV/AIDS donor programme, the US President'€™s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), met in Durban.
AIDS programmes need to look beyond nurses and doctors
HIV/AIDS programmes in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be implemented by doctors and nurses alone if they are to expand to meet the treatment needs of citizens, according to Dr Mark Dybul, acting US Global AIDS Co-ordinator.
SA minister wants more control over US funds
DURBAN '€“ The South African government would like more control over more than $450-million donated to the country by the US President'€™s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar), according to health minister Dr Manto Tshabalala Msimang.
Lose the fore-skin, but enhance behaviour Living with AIDS # 262
A study conducted in Orange Farm, a settlement south of Johannesburg, shows that circumcised men are at a lower risk of contracting HIV. But, some researchers warn against the wholesale promotion of circumcision as a barrier against HIV infection.
Politics interferes at UNGASS
African AIDS activists at the UN High-Level Meeting on HIV and AIDS in New York are furious over what they see as the overturning of agreed commitments on performance targets and the protection of vulnerable groups by a handful of African governments.