Talking Points
Law reform sought to stem exodus of specialists
November 6th, 2019 The SA Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (Sasog) is contemplating seeking a law reform to have medical litigation risk lowered, spokesperson Heidi Kruger told City Press. Galloping medico-legal claims ranging between R50m...
UK crackdown on beauty clinics: '1 in 5 put clients at risk'
November 6th, 2019 The UK’s health regulator is threatening to shut down beauty clinics that perform unsafe facelifts, nose jobs and breast enlargements after finding that one in five are putting clients at risk, reports The Guardian. Too many people undergoing...
Unaffordable breast cancer medicines are killing SA women
October 30th, 2019 Breast cancer remains the leading cancer affecting South Africa women. It is not only under-diagnosed but many will die needlessly because the most effective drugs are too expensive, writes Salomé Meyer, activist and Cancer Alliance Access...
900 children die in HIV outbreak that has sowed panic
October 30th, 2019 A small Pakistani city is the epicentre of an HIV outbreak that overwhelmingly has affected children. Many cases were traced to a single doctor, now charged with re-using syringes, but this is unlikely to the be the sole cause of the...
Crisp answers to tough questions: How NHI system might – or might not – function
October 23rd, 2019 Commentators have in recent months raised many questions about how South Africa’s proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system might function – or not function. Spotlight formulated 12 of these questions and sent them to Nicholas Crisp, the...
Big Tobacco and the controversy over research and influencing policy
October 23rd, 2019 News that the South African universities accepted tobacco industry sourced funding has reignited the controversy over the industry's attempts to influence public debate on health issues. The University of Cape Town’s department of psychiatry...
NMU's medical school gears up for first intake in 2021
October 23rd, 2019 The Nelson Mandela University Medical School is gearing up to open in 2021. It is the culmination of a journey that started in 1946. Nelson Mandela University health science dean Dr Lungile Pepeta writes in a Weekend Herald report: When I am at...
The sums on mental health care in SA are 'not pretty'
October 16th, 2019 Fewer than 1 in 10 people living with a mental health condition in South Africa receive the care they need and there are huge disparities between provinces in the allocation of mental health resources, write University of Cape Town researchers in...
Contracting NHI services to private sector may weaken public health
October 16th, 2019 Contracting out health services to the private sector may be a short-term solution to the problem of human resources and infrastructure in the public sector, but in the long term, may paradoxically weaken the public sector, writes Lydia Cairncross,...Turkish academic jailed over study linking toxic pollution and cancer
A Turkish food safety engineer has been jailed after releasing to a newspaper details of a study that he had done for the health ministry, which linked toxic pollution to a high incidence of cancer in the west of the country. Science Mag...R4.3 bn wasted on pilot projects shows NHI is a 'fantasy plan'
Since 2012, the ANC government has spent R4.3bn on NHI pilot projects to test their readiness, and every single one of them has failed, says Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, Mmusi Maimane. He spoke during a visit the Eastern Cape towns of...
HIV/Aids: "Not the moment for complacency and triumphalism"
October 2nd, 2019 Now is not the time to get stuck in complacency and triumphalism over the gains made in the global HIV/Aids response, former president of the International AIDS Society Professor Linda-Gail Bekker is quoted in Spotlight as saying, stressing that...
Corruption and organised crime worsen Africa's looming drugs crisis
October 2nd, 2019 A looming drugs crisis in Africa is being made worse by ineffective drug policy, fuelled by corruption and organised crime, says the ENACT transnational organised crime programme. African consumption of illegal drugs, including non-medical use...
Lessons from Africa on how trust can repair a broken health care system
October 2nd, 2019 Agnes Binagwaho, vice chancellor, University of Global Health Equity and Miriam Frisch, research associate to the vice chancellor, University of Global Health Equity write in The Conversation: Seven countries around the world – three of them...
The rights to NHI access by migrants are not absolute — HSRC director
September 25th, 2019 The rights of migrants to healthcare are not absolute, writes Prof Narnia Bohle-Muller, in Daily Maverick. There are exceptions and international human rights law allows states to treat citizens and non-citizens differently if the difference in...