Public Health
Could Ghana's NHI experience be a template for SA?
September 11th, 2019 Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa to have implemented a form of social insurance healthcare, which is being punted as a template for South Africa. But health-care actuary Barry Childs points out that due to "administrative challenges", the...
Why doctors are fleeing the public service — and SA
September 4th, 2019 Sometimes small events illuminate big issues. Western Cape Health's bizarre hounding of three registrars explains why doctors are leaving the public service and South Africa, writes Jaundiced Eye columnist William Saunderson-Meyer on...
Little of the criticism of the NHI Bill is 'constructive'
September 4th, 2019 There is a lot of criticism of the NHI Bill, but little of it is constructive, writes Professor Shabir Moosa, a family physician and professor at the department of family medicine and primary care, University of Witwatersrand and president of...
Prescription drug poses new threat to South African youths
August 29th, 2019 South African learners turn to anti-anxiety medication to manage stress but punishment remains the state’s primary intervention, writes Mark Hunter for the social justice publication New Frame. In July and August, he spoke with 39 groups of...
The African opioid epidemic you haven’t heard about
August 29th, 2019 Weakly regulated painkillers are causing untold damage in West Africa, but stricter controls could have dire consequences for patients with chronic pain. Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt unpicks an opioid crisis that is even more complex than...Daily e-cigarette use may help smokers quit regular cigarettes
A study from Massachusetts General Hospital's Tobacco Research and Treatment Center provides critical population-level evidence demonstrating that using e-cigarettes daily helps US smokers to quit combustible (regular) cigarettes. The report,...
Controversy over NHI must be seen against the backdrop of SA in crisis
August 28th, 2019 Louis Reynolds, associate professor affiliated to the paediatric department at the University of Cape Town and David Saunders, emeritus professor at the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape write in a Daily Maverick report:...
NHI Bill continues to spark furious debate
August 21st, 2019 The battle lines are drawn between the naysayers and supporters of National Health Insurance after the Bill was introduced to Parliament over a week ago, writes MedicalBrief. Expert opinion on the NHI Bill before Parliament is divided between...
Business Day blows away Mkhize's 'noble pipe dream'
August 7th, 2019 Responding to last week’s report evaluating the National Health Insurance’s 10 pilot projects, Business Day writes in in a strongly worded editorial that it was “difficult to see too many scenarios in which doctors, nurses and specialists...
NHS patients increasingly opt to pay more for private GP visits
August 7th, 2019 Complaints about UK National Health Service primary care are on the rise, with many patients opting for private GP consultations, reports The Daily Telegraph. These may be in person or by video. The report says that NHS GPs themselves are feeling...
Patients are bearing the brunt of SA's inadequate health services
August 7th, 2019 Patients continue to bear the brunt of inadequate health services, as some provinces reveal their health plans over the next financial year, says a Health-e News report. In May, Elliot Nkomo*, 50, spent R1,400 to buy antiretroviral (ARV)...
Revised NHI Bill raises more questions than gives answers
August 7th, 2019 Government is pushing through a revised National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, which is leaving analysts and medical professionals with more questions than answers – with others expecting the worst, says a Business Tech report. The Bill has been...
Mixed verdict on NHI pilots but Mkhize says its all about ‘political will’
July 31st, 2019 An independent assessment of the National Health Insurance's 10 pilot projects nationwide gave them a cautious “mixed success” verdict on the basis that none was an outright failure, writes MedicalBrief. Factors that to “a great degree...
BMJ debate: Should obesity be recognised as a disease?
July 24th, 2019 Categorising obesity as a disease will encourage people to seek treatment, experts argue in TheBMJ, but the counter-view is that medicalisation would be disempowering and actually result in worse outcomes for individuals and society. With obesity...
Pilot schemes are not working but government to forge ahead with NHI
July 24th, 2019 South Africa will forge ahead with its biggest post-apartheid healthcare reforms despite the lack of evidence from its multibillion-rand pilot programme that the scheme will work, Business Day reports an evaluation report shows. The National...