Thursday, 28 March, 2024
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Talking Points

Xenophobia threatens SA's NHI plans

There are signs that the National Health Insurance (NHI) has the potential not only to be hijacked by commercial interest groups, but is tumbling down...

SA needs to debate the contentious issues of euthanasia

Euthanasia, with its etymology rooted in the Greek language, meaning "good death", is a contentious as well as paramount conversation that needs to be...

It's not just about the number of hospital beds…

SA Health Minister Dr Aaron Mostoaledi has cited overcrowding as a root cause of recent Klebsiella-related infant deaths. However, while the number of beds...

Researchers warn that smart pills may be a dumb solution

Enthusiasm for an emerging digital health tool, the smart pill, is on the rise but researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago caution...

Ketamine free-for-all sparks concern in US

Ketamine gives hope to patients with severe depression, reports a Stat News investigation. But usage in the US is booming, with clinics hyping its...

Medicine must address sexual harassment in the workplace

Scientific and medical institutions must fundamentally reconsider how they address sexual harassment in the workplace, three US leaders in gender equity in medicine argue....

Anger over crowdfunding to fight cholera in Zimbabwe

The revenue-strapped Zimbabwe government has launched a crowdfunding campaign to deal with an outbreak of cholera that has so far killed 30 people, angering...

Cochrane Collaboration in turmoil over expulsion of board member

A the expulsion of a board member of the Cochrane Collaboration, one of medicine's most respected bodies for its reviews of clinical research, has...

Anti-vax fears drive record measles outbreaks in Europe

World Health Organisation, figures show that measles cases in in Europe the first six months of 2018 exceeded the annual total for each of...

Tower Hospital: The evidence contradicts Health Ombud's conclusions

Despite an emphatic assurance by SA's Health Ombudsman that ‘no prima facie evidence of institutionalised systematic or deliberate violations of human rights by staff was...

Wider benefits of alcohol outweigh health benefits of teetotalism — a rebuttal

‘No safe level of alcohol’ screamed headlines last week. They were inspired by the publication of a massive study, part of the ‘Global Burden...

Govt control will make SA healthcare worse, not better

While it is not surprising that the SA Federation of Trade Unions has an issue with a private system of healthcare, it is incorrect...

A properly implemented NHI could help bring together a divided society

Whatever the current failures of the proposed National Health Insurance scheme, it has the potential "to move the country towards socio-economic equality by prioritising a...

How SA's 'collusive' private healthcare sector can be fixed

South Africa's private healthcare sector, dominated by a few players, allows  non-competitive behaviour such as collusion and excessive pricing tends to thrive, writes Professor...

The Sugar Wars: Have the ill effects of sugar been overstated?

Have the ill effects of sugar been over-stated by scientists? Experts debate both sides in Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases. Over the past 50 years researchers,...

Proposed Bills are not the cure for the current health sector crisis

Will the proposed provisions and processes in the  National Health Insurance Bill and the Medical Schemes Amendment Bill strengthen the public health system? Professor Lucy Gilson of...

SA 'needs divestiture' to free up the private healthcare market

The preliminary findings of the inquiry into South Africa’s private health care sector shows worrying trends, writes Phumudzo S Munyai, associate professor at the...

Tobacco industry finds unlikely allies in fight against regulation

In recent weeks, health experts and journalists have spoken out against the government’s proposed Control of Tobacco Products and Electronic Delivery Systems Bill. It's...

State medico-legal exposure: A need to move beyond platitudes

The National Health Insurance Bill fails to make any provision for medico-legal exposure in State facilities, beyond platitudes about quality health care, writes Donald...

Africa Check puts together the numbers on doctor-patient ratios

The fact-checking organisation Africa Check looks at doctor-patient ratios in both public and private healthcare, following criticism by the Treatment Action Campaign that the...

Amsterdam's famous tolerance delivers health benefits

Amsterdam’s tolerance of sex work and recreational drugs has translated into better health outcomes for its citizens. But, asks an Health-e News report, can...

Tougher anti-smoking laws in the pipeline for SA

When South Africa introduced designated smoking areas in restaurants and bars there was vehement opposition from sections of the hospitality industry. But, writes Savera Kalideen,...

UCT leader should apologise for aggravating student trauma

University of Cape Town Vice-Chancellor Mamokgethi  Phakeng owes students an apology for aggravating the 'trauma' students experienced at the suicide of Professor Bongani Mayosi...

Mayosi's death a reminder that actions have consequences

Following the suicide of Professor Bonging Mayosi, South Africans cannot deny the oppositional tide unleashed against anyone who dared to speak critically about the...

Why SA must rein in the private healthcare industry

Criticisms that the Health Market Inquiry is an assault on the free market ignores the reality that there is no market in health care in South...

Motsoaledi: 'No caring state should leave such inequality unattended'

Critics of the National Health Insurance plan are "hardliners, driven by their desire to defend and perpetuate their own positions of huge benefit and...

The 'favoured child' still desperately needs intervention

Almost four decades on and despite having benefited as favoured child of global health funding, the HIV/Aids epidemic is far from over, writes Professor  Linda-Gail...

Esidimeni: Global lessons from a local tragedy

The former SA head of mental health services Melvyn Freeman has broken years of silence over the Life Esidimeni tragedy, writing  in The Lancet...

Experts call for BJSM study on intersex athletes to be retracted

The study the International Association of Athletics Federations relied on to decide a new regulation on intersex athletes, like Caster Semenya, was flawed and should...

The anti-vaxxer myth has 'become tiresome'

Anti-vaxxers, who generally believe that there is a high risk that vaccines cause serious side-effects such as autism, hate the term “anti-vaxxer”, writes Ivo...

Assessing the actions taken to save Robert Kennedy after 1968 shooting

50 years after the assassination of US Senator Robert F Kennedy, a Duke University study assesses whether Kennedy could have survived if he were...

SA's bleak medico-legal dilemma: How to avoid Jarndyce vs Jarndyce

Modern medico-legal disputes remain reminiscent of Jarndyce v Jarndyce – the fictional long-running court case that terminated in a judgment only when there were no...

SAHRC debate on the right of healthcare providers to protest

Just because healthcare workers are providing an essential service does not mean they can't protest – or does it? The Times reports that the...

Software 'performs better than humans' in Royal College's GP exam

Its commercial artificial intelligence diagnostics software performs better than humans in the Royal College of General Practitioner’s exam that must be passed to become...

NHI demands data sharing between insurers and doctors

Healthcare looks to data to help solve primary challenges in the access, quality and affordability of care in the wake of realising universal health...

Women struggling to have proper conversations with male doctors

Women struggle to get their needs met by doctors because the profession is “overwhelmingly male”, a health minister in the UK has suggested. Jackie...

NHI Bill 'won't be a silver bullet' in saving public healthcare in SA

There can be no dispute that SA’s health care system needs major reforms, writes Professor Laetitia Rispel of the University of the Witwatersrand in...

SA flight attendant grounded because of 'out of date' HIV protocols

South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority dragged a flight attendant who disclosed his positive HIV-status through a bruising battle over his right to work and...

The hurdles and frustrations faced by women in medicine

Hospital employees and patients sometimes still need ‘gentle clarification’ that their female physician is not the hospital social worker or some other junior functionary,...

Admitting SA's health crisis the first step to fixing it

A Business Day editorial says that Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi's selective use of statistics is a classic case of a politician under fire...