HomeHealth Policy
Health Policy
Pandemic treaty talks extended for a year
Talks to finalise a global pandemic agreement have been extended, with the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) picking up discussions again from 16 July at...
Should doctors treat family and friends?
The question of whether doctors should be allowed to treat – and operate on – close friends and relatives is a controversial one, and...
Protests at Eastern Cape hospital over doctor's transfer
Protests have erupted from hospital staff and the local community after a senior doctor, who has worked at Zithulele Hospital in the Eastern Cape...
Post-surgery complications higher for African children
After a recent study revealed abysmal outcomes after anaesthesia and surgery for African children with complication rates up to four-fold higher and mortality rates...
NHS gender treatment model slammed in damning report
Children given NHS transgender treatment have been set on a path of irreversible change despite scant medical data, and based on “remarkably weak evidence” according to...
NCD Alliance urges stronger action against harmful industries
Global action must be beefed up to prevent interference in health policy by industries selling products that harm people, like tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed food...
Insurer's attack medical regulator's 'brutal violation of constitutional rights'
The out-of-the blue decision to end private-sector primary healthcare cover in March 2021 was “a brutal violation” of constitutional rights and, should medical...
Eskom crisis may be dwarfed by the looming NHI disaster
As much as the country is currently focused on the crisis in Eskom, the nation seems to have lost sight of the looming National...
Health experts divided over whether Big Tobacco's 'smoke-free world' strategy be trusted
Public health experts are divided on whether tobacco industry efforts to reduce health impacts and death through smoke-free products should be engaged with or...
Trying to turn the tide on Africa's avoidable deaths
Nowhere are the battle lines between public health authorities and Big Tobacco, Big Food and Big Soda sharper than in South Africa and on...
Mental health in Africa is 'neglected and stigmatised'
Historically, mental health has been neglected on Africa’s health and development policy agenda, writes Professor Crick Lund, professor and director of the Alan J...
Abolishing medical tax credit 'problematic' and could face court challenge
As the SA government mulls its options to reduce expenditure while funding priority programmes, experts have warned that the abolishment of the medical tax...
Doctors in India protest over decision to 'sanction quackery'
Doctors in India have accused the government of seeking to “sanction quackery” by proposing to allow homeopaths and others trained in alternative remedies to...
SA's thorny health issues carried over into 2018
As the year begins, it’s common for individuals, companies and government departments to have a few things on their list of things to do....
Sleepless nights over inequitable funding for Gauteng — Health MEC
Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa assumed office in February, and she is quoted in a News24 report as saying that she believes the department’s...
Inquiry blames SA private hospitals for driving up costs
The SA Health Market Inquiry has blamed private hospitals for much of the above-inflation increases in expenditure reported by medical schemes, according to a...
New Dutch health minister tackles 'absurd' medicines pricing
The new Minister of Health of The Netherlands, Bruno Bruins, has put the pharmaceutical industry on notice announcing on 22 November he planned to...
Traditional initiation banned in Gauteng until end 2018
The Commission for Cultural‚ Religious and Linguistic Rights (CRL) has ordered a suspension of all initiation-related activities in Gauteng until December 2018‚ in an...
Government pressing ahead with NHI despite warnings — IRR
SA is pressing ahead with implementing the National Health Insurance system, effectively ignoring a report by the Davis Tax Committee that warns that the...
NHI risks 'extreme destabilisation’ and accelerated emigration of doctors
The South African government is 'proceeding by trial and error' with the implementation of the National Health Insurance proposal 'irrespective of the massive damage that...
Davis Tax Committee warns NHI may spark e-toll style resistance
Uncertainty around how South Africa’s National Health Insurance will work is cause for concern, says a report by the Davis Tax Committee. And if...
SA government 'alarmingly inconsistent' over NHI
Treasury and Health officials are, behind the scenes, quietly crafting a pilot structure to test crucial aspects of government’s grand plan for universal SA...
Limpopo Health to cut staff to free up funds
Limpopo Health is poised to radically restructure its staff complement to try to free up more money for frontline workers and goods and services, according...
The Tricky Trio: Gauteng Health officials duck and dive
Top Gauteng Health officials who have so far avoided giving evidence before the Life Esidimeni inquiry into the deaths of 144 mental patients are...
Outrage over 'disinterested' Mugabe's WHO appointment justified — columnist
Typhoid and cholera are never far from the headlines in Zimbabwe, writes Dianna Games, CEO of Africa @ Work in a Business Day column. She...
Tax credits worth R25bn to be phased out to fund NHI
South African taxpayer’s tax credits totalling about R25bn will be phased out in the coming months as a means of funding the incoming National...
NHI legal framework will take 'twice as long as planned'
Developing the legal framework for the National Health Insurance (NHI) policy is likely to take twice longer than by the 2022 deadline government has...
Health Department adviser reassures on private sector role in NHS
The private sector has a vital role to play in implementing National Health Insurance, an adviser to the South African Department of Health told...
Hasa proposal could cut med aid premiums up to 30%
The Hospital Association of SA (Hasa) is calling for compulsory medical scheme membership as an interim measure to implement National Health Insurance (NHI), which...
Divisions grow in SA's unions over NHI plan
Trade union federation Cosatu is pushing for the state’s National Health Insurance plan to be implemented‚ but says a report in The Herald, not...
SA challenged to face 'hard truths' on drug abuse prejudices – Global Commission
South Africa has taken a lead in the HIV response, but HIV won’t be overcome until the country faces some hard truths about drug...
Disembowelling SA's private healthcare system
"Health tourism" by African leaders has been criticised by South Africa’s health minister. While the self-serving hypocrisy of leaders who have destroyed their countries’...
Independent body may monitor SA's private healthcare quality
The Competition Commission’s healthcare market inquiry is considering recommending that an independent body is established to monitor the quality of SA's private healthcare services,...
NHS ends funding of homeopathic and herbal medicines
Homeopathic and herbal remedies will no longer be funded under the British National Health Service because they are a 'misuse of scarce funds' University...
Wealthy foot bill for 87% of SA's private and state healthcare – Econex
The way healthcare‚ hospitals and doctors are paid for in SA does not 'punish the poor' as the National Health Insurance policy papers...
'Not even its supporters agree' on what NHI means for private health
Even supporters of the National Health Insurance disagree on what the shift will mean, especially for private medical schemes, writes Amy Green in a...
NHI White Paper proposes 'effective nationalisation without compensation' of private healthcare
The recently released National Health Insurance (NHI) White Paper ignores the fundamentals of competition and choice, writes Mike Settas, director of health insurer KaeloXelus. Among...
NHI White Paper 'a fantasy that ignores the SA economic downturn'
The SA National Health Insurance White Paper is a 'wan fantasy' that ignores SA's ailing economy poor regulatory mechanisms and the role of private...
Medical 'voluntourism' in Tanzania: Some help does cause harm
The international medical volunteer placement industry opens the door to potentially disastrous outcomes, writes Noel Sullivan in Scientific American. Sullivan, a member of the faculty...
Motsoaledi wants private healthcare forced out for the NHI
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has been tasked with an important aspect of the 'radical economic transformation' agenda, and that is to nationalise healthcare in...