MAFIKENG '€“ North West province is in critical need of more doctors and an improved transfer system to transport those patients in rural areas who are in urgent need of healthcare to clinics and hospitals, civil society participants disclosed at a recent workshop in Mafikeng.
Western Cape residents agreed they would rush their province'€™s health care system to the emergency room, if they thought it would do any good.
As the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) marked its fifth year of implementing its revised risk management model, which includes the use of black donors'€™ blood, the organisation has proudly announced that there have been zero HIV transmissions emanating from its stock, apart from one person who received Hepatitis-infected blood.
Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, says he plans to appoint a regulatory body that will ensure that hospitals comply with set requirements to be accredited as suitable facilities under the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system.
A growing number of people with mental illnesses are placing a strain on Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, in Soweto, as there are fewer staff and facilities to serve them.
OPINION:In the light of huge challenges faced by many low-income South Africans in accessing quality care, it is heartening to see the urgency with which the government is addressing key health sector issues. By Hein Van Eck.
OPINION: No country in the world has a perfect health system. But some countries have got it more right than others, and where countries have got it right, it is through the state being involved to some degree in regulating the system. by Mike Waters, MP.
The National Department of Health Annual Report 2009-10 has been released. Read it here.
OPINION: The surprise release of the ANC'€™s discussion document on the proposed National Health Insurance scheme has again opened up the deep and disturbing economic divisions that persist in South Africa. By Elroy Paulus
A number of interventions have been implemented in response to recommendations made by a team of experts who critically assessed South Africa'€™s public health system last year, health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi revealed in an interview.
Universal health coverage, or National Health Insurance, is affordable and would have the greatest spin off for the vast majority of South Africans who do and will increasingly rely on the state health sector, a University of Cape Town modeling initiative has revealed.
Health minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is determined to make primary health care the cornerstone of the country'€™s healthcare system and he has no qualms about shifting the budgets of those provinces who fail to toe the line.
About 75 000 children under the age of five die in South Africa each year. This means that about 200 South African children die every day. HIV accounts for most of the deaths, and compared with countries of similar economies, South Africa is not doing well to care for its babies.
It has been 18 months at the helm of one of South Africa'€™s toughest cabinet portfolios and already Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has endured a disgruntled doctors'€™ strike, a crippling public sector work stoppage, the untimely death of his deputy minister and complex debates on a National Health Insurance initiative, which is really the critical transformation of the health system.
OPINION:Since the ANC'€™s announcement last week that a national health insurance (NHI) will be pursued, we have once again seen claims that an NHI is unaffordable and that the whole idea should be consigned to the garbage bin. However, South Africa can have a health system that makes us proud and serves everyone, rich and poor, in an equitable manner.
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