FOCUS: MEDICAL PRACTICE
Scathing ruling against state's bid to control where doctors work
The Department of Health’s plans to control where doctors work have been dealt a blow by the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) which has declared unconstitutional and invalid the National Health Act’s provisions for issuing health establishments with a “certificate of need”.
Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale said the ruling has “serious implications” for the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI), and the department would seek a rescission of the judgment and challenge the matter in the Constitutional Court.
Business Day reports...
FOCUS: CORONAVIRUS
Lessons from the pandemic: vaccines prevent deaths, and ‘listen to scientists’
As South Africa last week joined the ranks of a growing number of countries which have dropped all COVID-19 restrictions, bringing to an end a fraught few years, one of the resounding successes during the period was the role played by vaccines in preventing deaths.
Access to vaccines, however, differed vastly across the globe, with a study saying 132, 700 deaths could have been averted in Africa if health authorities had met their vaccination targets.
This week, a mathematical modelling study...
FOCUS: SPONSORED EDITORIAL
Desmond Tutu HIV Centre and UCT's Postgrad Diploma in TB-HIV Management
In underserved areas where HIV and TB are rife, primary care clinicians increasingly require in-depth knowledge to safely deal with the complex HIV and TB scenarios they encounter daily. However, high patient loads, limited time and geographical distance mean that healthcare workers (HCWs) are often unable to access traditional educational methods.
The Postgraduate Diploma in TB-HIV Management seeks to bridge identified training gaps by targeting primary care and community-level clinicians, as well as other professional HCWs. It provides them with...