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Talking Points
Medical sector in SA also touched by xenophobia
With sporadic and violent xenophobic attacks in South Africa making global and local headlines, the medical sector is also experiencing this worrying phenomenon, writes...
UCT med school has a culture of 'vicious victimhood', says academic
Racial friction in the third-year MBChB class at the University of Cape Town's medical school has spilled into public. David Benatar writes on Politicsweb...
US Health department sues Gilead Sciences over Truvada patent rights
It's set to be intellectual property rights battle of the century, writes MedicalBrief. The US government is suing Gilead Sciences over the patent rights...
Furore over Australian obstetrician who wants consent forms for vaginal births
An eminent Australian obstetrician and gynaecologist has caused a furore with his views that women should have to sign a consent form confirming that...
'Ignore the advice about not getting close to your patients'
Ignoring my mentors' warnings against getting close to my patients was not just me bucking against authority, but a more humanistic way to...
Battle looms over migrant rights to access NHI services
Everyone living in South Africa is constitutionally guaranteed the right to access healthcare services, an analysis in Spotlight notes. However, according to the NHI...
Law reform sought to stem exodus of specialists
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...
UK crackdown on beauty clinics: '1 in 5 put clients at risk'
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...
Unaffordable breast cancer medicines are killing SA women
Breast cancer remains the leading cancer affecting South Africa women. It is not only under-diagnosed but many will die needlessly because the most...
900 children die in HIV outbreak that has sowed panic
A small Pakistani city is the epicentre of an HIV outbreak that overwhelmingly has affected children. Many cases were traced to a single doctor,...
Crisp answers to tough questions: How NHI system might – or might not – function
Commentators have in recent months raised many questions about how South Africa’s proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system might function – or not function....
Big Tobacco and the controversy over research and influencing policy
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...
NMU's medical school gears up for first intake in 2021
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...
The sums on mental health care in SA are 'not pretty'
Fewer than 1 in 10 people living with a mental health condition in South Africa receive the care they need and there are...
Contracting NHI services to private sector may weaken public health
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...
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...
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,...
HIV/Aids: "Not the moment for complacency and triumphalism"
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...
Corruption and organised crime worsen Africa's looming drugs crisis
A looming drugs crisis in Africa is being made worse by ineffective drug policy, fuelled by corruption and organised crime, says the ENACT transnational...
Lessons from Africa on how trust can repair a broken health care system
Agnes Binagwaho, vice chancellor, University of Global Health Equity and Miriam Frisch, research associate to the vice chancellor, University of Global Health Equity write...
The rights to NHI access by migrants are not absolute — HSRC director
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...
Now a 'tsunami' of teens seeking treatment for 'eco anxiety'
Parents are being warned not to "terrify" their children with doomsday climate change warnings amid a surge of young people seeking treatment for "eco...
Most of Africa's leaders seek their medical treatment abroad
Confronted with failing, under-resourced and understaffed healthcare systems at home, most African leaders seek treatment abroad, writes Dr Chipo Dendere of Wellesley College writes...
SA can rebuild its health systems from the bottom up
The bottom-up process strengthening health systems is already happening and provides valuable lessons for the reforms contemplated in the NHI Bill, writes Prof Helen...
Could Ghana's NHI experience be a template for SA?
Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa to have implemented a form of social insurance healthcare, which is being punted as a...
NHI not a moral debate — it’s a maths problem
The NHI is not a moral problem, it's simply a maths problem, according to an analysis in BizNews. And the bottom line is that...
Age as a litmus test for choosing the next US president
With three Democrats in their 70s vying to challenge the 73-year old Donal Trump, the oldest first-term president in US history, age’s importance will...
Ok, I'll have just a quick glass of red, if you insist…
The King's College London authors of a new three-cohort international study on gut microbiota, explain in The Conversation why — despite all the documented...
Why doctors are fleeing the public service — and SA
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...
SA's individual taxpayers will bear the brunt of the NHI
There has been a sharp decline in individual taxpayers over the past few years, while their tax burden has increased substantially. The National Health...
Little of the criticism of the NHI Bill is 'constructive'
There is a lot of criticism of the NHI Bill, but little of it is constructive, writes Professor Shabir Moosa, a family physician and...
Tiresome use of 'transformation' to hide NHI's potential for patronage
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...
Controversy over NHI must be seen against the backdrop of SA in crisis
Louis Reynolds, associate professor affiliated to the paediatric department at the University of Cape Town and David Saunders, emeritus professor at the School of...
Should doctors should accept unvaccinated children as patients?
Four in 10 parents say they are very or somewhat likely to move their child to a different provider if their doctor sees families...
A tale of two hospitals — AfriForum's oversight visit to Limpopo
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...
The NHI must be fought not only on the detail, but on the principle
The problem with the typical response to the proposed National Health Insurance system is that s to say “we agree with the principle, but...
WHO withdraws UK's 'measles free' status; PM blames social media
The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said social media firms must share the responsibility for the rising spread of measles in the UK...
Health Compact 'waters down' access to affordable medicine
In May 2018, the Trade and Industry Department finally unveiled a new policy that would help to rein in pharmaceutical industry profiteering, but the...
Business Day blows away Mkhize's 'noble pipe dream'
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...
NHS patients increasingly opt to pay more for private GP visits
Complaints about UK National Health Service primary care are on the rise, with many patients opting for private GP consultations, reports The Daily Telegraph....