SOSHANGUVE. - It's early on a Wednesday morning and children are crying because of the heat while waiting in line at the JJ Clinic in the Tshwane health district. The clinic often sees more than 150 patients a day who comes to consult on various health problems.
BISHO. ' Members of the Ubuntu Bethu last week marched to the offices of the Eastern Cape Health MEC to demand better health services in the province.
VHEMBE. ' A 19-year-old girl from Gumela village in Limpopo thought she was solving her problems by going for an abortion, but was actually causing more problems than she thought.
VHEMBE. ' Requests to the Department of Education to upgrade facilities at the Mafukani pre-school have fallen on deaf ears, and have eventually resulted in a four-year-old nearly losing her life after being bitten by a snake in the sub-standard toilet facilities at the school.
TSHWANE. - Patients at Kgabo Community Health Centre are fuming over the unavailability of x-ray service at the clinic which means they have to travel extensive distances to the nearest hospital to for an x-ray.
Avoidable deaths occur on a weekly basis at Helen Joseph hospital while Leratong hospital is a tragedy and disaster, a senior doctor said this week.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Helen Joseph doctor has agreed to supply an affidavit should SECTION27 pursue a legal avenue.
Patient CZ's horror story represents a myriad of breakdowns within the Gauteng health system ranging from stockouts of critical drugs, long delays in investigative and diagnostic procedures and stockouts of basics such as clean linen.
Professor Ashraf Coovadia shakes his head. 'What really grates me is that we have the resources. Yes, we have challenges, but we have the skills, we have the facilities, we have the expertise ' much more than in most of Africa and in certain respects comparable to the developed world'.
The contributing factors that caused the crisis were improper budgeting and financial management, poor supply chain management and poor management.
SECTION27 has called for those politicians and managers who have been overseeing the systematic collapse of the Gauteng state health system to face the wrath of the law. Read the full report and a series of stories here.
The report details four core areas in which services were compromised. Read more here.
Patient CZ's horror story represents a myriad of breakdowns within the Gauteng health system ' ranging from stockouts of critical drugs, long delays in investigative and diagnostic procedures and stockouts of basics such as clean linen.
OPINION: I recently met a young woman named Mercy who had five children and was struggling to make ends meet. She had tried oral contraceptives to prevent pregnancy, but admitted that she often forgot to take the pill every day. She then tried injectable contraceptives, which required her to visit to the health centre every quarter, but she often did not have enough money for transport. In fact, she became pregnant with her fifth child after missing one injection. By Dr. Bashir Issak
MTHATHA. - OR Tambo health district is among the 10 pilot sites for the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) in South Africa. The district has had a visit from the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi and various preparations have been done for the launch of this project, such as the training of health professionals.
LUSIKISIKI. 'After months of complaining and eventually taking action through protest, the community of this Eastern Cape village finally received a response from their district health office about the poor facilities at the Village Clinic.
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