Talking Points
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...
Tiresome use of 'transformation' to hide NHI's potential for patronage
August 28th, 2019 Introduce the word “transformation” into any policy discussion and you don’t need to rely on actual evidence or rational argument, writes Alex van den Heever of Wits, following President Cyril Ramaphosa labelling critics of the NHI as...
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:...
Should doctors should accept unvaccinated children as patients?
August 28th, 2019 Four in 10 parents say they are very or somewhat likely to move their child to a different provider if their doctor sees families who refuse all childhood vaccines, according to a US national poll. Most children in the US receive recommended...
A tale of two hospitals — AfriForum's oversight visit to Limpopo
August 28th, 2019 Two hospitals in Limpopo, part of an AfriForum watchdog visit, were not only widely disparate in physical condition, but in the attitude displayed. Dr Eugene Brink, strategic advisor for community affairs at AfriForum writes on the results of...
The NHI must be fought not only on the detail, but on the principle
August 21st, 2019 The problem with the typical response to the proposed National Health Insurance system is that s to say “we agree with the principle, but not the detail”, writes John Kane-Berman of the Institute of Race Relations. But “far from being...
WHO withdraws UK's 'measles free' status; PM blames social media
August 21st, 2019 The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said social media firms must share the responsibility for the rising spread of measles in the UK as he attacked antivax misinformation. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, Johnson has set out plans...
Health Compact 'waters down' access to affordable medicine
August 14th, 2019 In May 2018, the Trade and Industry Department finally unveiled a new policy that would help to rein in pharmaceutical industry profiteering, but the industry has fought back. Mark Heywood, the editor of the soon-to-be-launched Maverick Citizen...
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...
Is an ancient therapy the answer to multi-drug resistance?
July 31st, 2019 More than a century since its debut on the fringes of medicine, phage therapy is moving onto centre stage. A couple of recent cases, in particular, have put the therapy under the spotlight. According to a Leaps Magazine report, the deadly...
Most medical journal editors flout the standards they demand of authors
July 31st, 2019 Virtually all top medical journals require authors to disclose potential conflicts of interest, but few – just 12% – apply that same medicine to their own editors by publicly disclosing editors’ financial ties to industry, Science Mag reports...
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...