Various legislative changes aimed at get the private sector to take on more public health patients have been undermined by high medical inflation

The Patients'€™ Rights Charter has been in existence for almost three years yet many health services clients have no knowledge or understanding of these rights.

South African nursing is in crisis as scores of professionals seek alternative employment or opt to leave the country in search of lucrative work overseas. Experts agree this exodus will have a catastrophic effect on the delivery of healthcare over the next decade. Anso Thom of Health-e News Service investigates.

Late last year two day hospitals in the township of Guguletu in Cape Town were forced to close because on-duty doctors and nursing personnel repeatedly fell prey to brazen criminals who robbed them of cell phones, money, jewellery and other valuables. The criminals, who seem to have gained easy access to premises, also targeted regular patients. Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, Leonard Ramatlakane has now called on the beleaguered communities of Guguletu and Khayelitsha to work with the police to make these areas safer. He said security at the day hospitals need to be stepped up and that security personnel, who are employed by the Provincial Department of Health, needed to be more vigilant as police can only act if they are called out.

The decision to  renovate  a section of Johannesburg General Hospital for private patients has the potential to bring much needed money to the cash-strapped hospital

South Africa recently joined over forty countries worldwide in the launch of the '€œBone and Joint Decade'€, a global campaign under the auspices of the World Health Organisation. South Africa'€™s participation in the Bone and Joint Decade programme follows its launch in Geneva in 2000. The programme will run until the year 2010. This initiative will highlight a range of musculoskeletal conditions including arthritis, osteoporosis, spinal disorders, lower back pain and sports injuries that affect millions of people. It hopes to encourage greater understanding and treatment of these diseases through research, prevention and education. Khopotso Bodibe reports.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is under great political pressure to toe the party line and become "the trusted scientific voice that justifies unscientific findings or pseudo-science", according to MRC president Dr Malegapuru Makgoba.

The migration of South African nurses to foreign countries has had a noticeable impact on health services in most of the rural and urban areas. Despite the fact that there are no official figures for the number of nurses who have left the country staff at clinics and hospitals are feeling the strain of vacant posts. In this audio report, Thandeka Teyise speaks to the Human Resources Director for Development in the Department of Health, Rose Mdlalose about research into the problem and potential solutions.

The Boland Districts Municipality has stopped an innovative  scheme in Robertson, in which patients attending local clinics  gave a small medication  donation and  managed to raise a significant amount of money  to finance  a wide range of health services not covered by government. Health-e visited the Boland town to investigate the issue.

To be a nurse is a wonderful thing say Lerato Mntuyedwa a Primary Health Care Nursing Sister at Khayamandi Clinic in Stellenbosch. She says young as she was when she qualified, she had one mission: to be able to help the sick. Although demanding attitudes from patients make it hard for nurses to do their jobs, she remains committed to her task. She says in Khayamandi, the influx of people from rural areas seeking better health services adds to the pressure under which clinic nurses find themselves.

Underspending of provincial budgets is one of the main problems in delivering health services to the country's most needy citizens. Judging from the budget presentations made to the Parliamentary health portfolio committee by the nine provinces, the provinces that need the most support are the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga.

The beleaguered Eastern Cape health department, serving one of the poorest communities in the country, has reported massive underspending on services, amounting to a whopping R328,4-million - a large amount being funds earmarked for the primary school nutrition programme. Anso Thom reports on parliamentary health budget hearings.