Millions of rand in alleged “unlawful looting” of the SAPS’s medical scheme POLMED have drawn the ire of scores of police officers, who have slammed the level of coverage received. Claims are that POLMED, which covers 680,000 members and beneficiaries, has “unlawfully” awarded roughly R15.7 million to its BOT (board of trustees) over three years..
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SAPS medical scheme – R15.7 million of POLMED’s funds ‘looted’ by board of trustees
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New Research/Studies Confirms Cannabis Kills Brain Cancer, NOT Your Brain
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Some might say it’s too good to be true. Does cannabis really fight brain cancer? Research of the past two decades suggests that it does.
Some might think that it’s too good to be true. Does cannabis really kill brain cancer cells? Clinical trials on humans are awaiting results, but recent research gives hope. Scientists have been testing THC as a natural tumor-killer for nearly two decades. Their findings will take you by surprise.
Cannabis and brain cancer
A group of Spanish researchers has been searching for cannabis-based cancer treatments for nearly two decades. The team is from the Complutense University of Madrid. Thus far, some of their experiments have been nothing short of miraculous.
The team, led by Professors Guillermo Velasco and Manuel Guzman, are testing cannabinoid treatment’s ability to kill glioma cells. Gliomas make up 80% of all malignant brain cancers. In fact, it’s one of the most aggressive forms of cancer ou
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This very popular birth control shot is out of stock for the second year running. Read why
Dedicated cannabis expo at Sun Exhibits at GrandWest in Cape Town this April
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The Cannabis Expo, a trade and consumer exhibition dedicated to the cannabis industry, is set be held at Sun Exhibits at GrandWest in Cape Town from 4 to 7 April.
Headlined by multinational healthcare group, Go Life International, the Cape Town event follows the official launch of The Cannabis Expo in Pretoria last year.
According to the organisers, this is the largest exhibition of its kind on the African continent, and due to a number of reasons – including SA’s liberal laws, geographic climate, population demographics, and the wide array of cultures – the country is “expected to become one of the largest cannabis industry marketplaces in the world”.
The Cannabis Expo Cape Town includes an exhibitor hall, networking and entertainment spaces. It also features as a convention stage and workshop hosting local and international experts from across the industry every half-hour throughout the expo.
With a variety of cannabis-related products and services
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Billions are lost due to Doctors, hospitals and medical aid members collude to commit fraud
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The Special Investigating Unit says it is actively targeting fraudsters in the private healthcare sector.
Fraud, waste and abuse is costing the private healthcare system more than R22-billion, and if you submit false claims, you could face more than just being terminated from your scheme, the Council for Medical Schemes warned at its summit on fraud this week.
The event comes after deputy president David Mabuza announced at the Presidential Health Summit that the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) would be honing in on the healthcare sector.
“We want independent investigations that are turned around quickly and submit and identify findings appropriately,” Mabuza said at the October gathering.
The CMS estimates that fraud, abuse or waste accounts for about 15% of the R160-billion in claims that medical aids pay out annually.
The head of the SIU, advocate Andy Mothibi, said the body is working with the National Prosecuting Authority to help ensure tha
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Our borders are being flooded so the question is, are foreigners really entitled to free healthcare in South Africa?
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Directives recently issued by the national and Gauteng health departments requiring foreign nationals to pay in full for healthcare at public facilities weren’t only a threat to public health, they may have been downright illegal.
Walk into a public hospital, and you may be asked to fill out a form stating just how much you earn. That’s because many services in the public sector are billed for on a sliding scale based on a means test: You pay what you can for the treatment you need. At least in theory.
In mid-January, a national health department circular reportedly instructed clinics and hospitals to begin billing foreign nationals the full rate for public health services. Low-income refugees, the memo said, would be the sole exception and would be means tested, Business Day reported.
Only Gauteng passed these instructions onto its clinics and hospitals, specifying that all non-South Africans other than documented refugees should be charged full fees for
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What a disgrace in our Hospitals, woman discharged from hospital, home in an ambulance (graphic photo’s)
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Mrs Kerns had been vomiting uncontrollably for three days by the time she eventually made her way to seek medical assistance.
On December 5 at 16:00 *Mrs Gracie Kerns arrived with her daughter, *Mrs Susan Coombs at Witbank Provincial Hospital.
Mrs Kerns had been vomiting uncontrollably for three days by the time she eventually made her way to seek medical assistance.
An ambulance had to be called to transport Mrs Kerns to the hospital due to her frailty.
Nearly exactly 12 hours after Mrs Kerns had arrived at Witbank Provincial Hospital, at approximately 04:00, she was finally able to see a doctor.
“The ambulance that took her to hospital was in a terrible state,” Mrs Coombs, Mrs Kerns’s daughter, explained; “the doors didn’t close. They’d apparently been kicked off of their hinges by a previous patient. The stretcher was also problematic as it wasn’t very manoeuvrable and lead to us having to shuffle my mother around the house to get her to
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Hard times lies ahead for the ANC’s Department of Health:- angry nurses says, No jobs, no vote
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“No jobs, no vote,” shouted disgruntled nurses who marched to the provincial health department in Pietermaritzburg.
Hundreds of nurses carried placards and handed over a memorandum demanding that unemployed nurses be employed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. Nurses from the Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (HOSPERSA) were part of the march.
The marchers said there were 15,000 unemployed nurses in KZN and 40,000 vacancies for nurses nationwide, according to a “study”.
But when GroundUp asked the provincial chairperson of HOSPERSA, Thamsanqa Zondi, the source of these figures, he said the figures were estimates and should not be used by the media. He said the union did not have a copy of the study.
Last year nurses marched three times demanding that the health department prioritise their demands.
United Nurses Forum president Bhekithemba Gumbi said nothing had changed. Quoting the same figures, he said there was
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Grandson laments treatment at PE hospital – ‘Not one nurse to help him’
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Life St George’s Hospital in Port Elizabeth has launched an internal investigation after the grandson of one of its patients posted photos of his grandfather soaked in urine and blood with “not one nurse to help him”.
This was despite the hospital knowing the elderly man needed 24-hour care for which he was signed up for, Jason Gordon wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
His grandfather was blind and suffered from dementia.
“This is not the first time I have visited him after work to find something wrong. The first time they had inserted his drip incorrectly. It took more than 3 days for the swelling to go down,” Gordon wrote.
“This is not the kind of care I would expect when you pay so much for medical aid; this kind of thing should not be acceptable in any state or private hospital. You would expect people in the medical profession to be compassionate and want to make sure their patients are comfortable, not leaving them in an embarrassing and unhealthy s
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A tech company, Proteus, just launched a ‘smart’ cancer pills that track you with tiny sensors stamped into your medications
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A US digital medicine company called Proteus makes ‘smart pills’ embedded with sensors that tell your doctor when you’ve taken your medication. The pills also track activity levels.
Backed by big name investors like Novartis, Proteus debuted the first medication made with the technology – a form of the depression and schizophrenia drug Abilify – in 2017.
Now, Proteus is expanding into cancer.
Still, the research on whether the pills actually help patients take their medications when they should remains somewhat unclear.
Would a notification from your doctor as soon as you forget to take your medication help keep you on track?
A digital medicine company called Proteus is betting the answer is yes.
The Silicon Valley-based company makes what have been called “smart pills”: essentially, versions of regular medications embedded with a tiny sensor that can be tracked by a patch worn on a patient’s stomach.
Since debuting the first medication made with t
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Let’s have a look at why doctors and nurses are facing unemployment
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It’s the age of austerity and it’s bad news for doctors, nurses and patients alike — unless the state can do more with less.
Almost 200 posts for doctors and specialists remain unfilled at Gauteng’s four academic hospitals — and many of these posts are likely to remain empty, the health department says.
Gauteng hospitals can only fill half of its critical medical staff vacancies — positions that normally go to doctors, specialists and nurses, Gauteng health department deputy director general for clinical services Richard Lebethe says.
Hospitals were first informed about this via an April circular sent to hospitals.
The head of psychiatry at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Wendy Friedlander, says medical officers are feeling the strain of almost 80 vacant posts.
“Doctors [now] have a much greater doctor to patient ratio. If you have more patients, what you can give in terms of time, facilities and resources to each patient is much
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Discovery apparently is more focused on profit than on service delivery to patients – patients signing in at certain hospitals now have to pay an extra R5000
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Discovery’s medical scheme announced at a very late stage that patients signing in at certain hospitals would have to pay an extra R5000 or go to an approved clinic. The arrangement will be implemented from February 1, 2019 and doctors are not happy with the announcement. Experts point out that the medical scheme is apparently..
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Suid-Afrikaners is woes kwaad oor die Discovery-groep se swart aandeelhouer planne en wil van fondse verander, hoe maklik is dit egter om jou mediese fonds te verander?
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Baie Suid-Afrikaners is so warm onder die kraag oor die Discovery-groep se planne om aan swart deposante ’n 10%-belang in sy nuwe bank te gee dat hulle dreig om Discovery se mediese fonds te verlaat.
Die sangers Bobby van Jaarsveld en Steve Hofmeyr is deel van dié groep ontevredenes.
Mense wat dit oorweeg, moet hulle deeglik vergewis van die vereistes van die Wet op Mediese Skemas sodat hulle nie sonder dekking in ’n krisis gelaat word nie.
Eerstens geld ’n wagtydperk vir enige nuwe lid van ’n mediese fonds. Hoe lank dié wagtydperk is, hang af van hoe lank jy lid van jou vorige fonds was – langer of korter as twee jaar ononderbroke.
As jy langer as twee jaar lid was, geld ’n wagtydperk van drie maande, maar net as daar nie meer as 90 dae verloop tussen die lidmaatskap van die twee fondse nie.
In die drie-maande-wagtydperk moet jy die volle premie betaal, maar net eise ten opsigte van voorgeskrewe minimum voordele (VMW) en lewensbedreigende
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Spectramed and Resolution Health merge to form Health Squared Medical Scheme
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Spectramed Medical Scheme and Resolution Health Medical Scheme (Resolution Health) have merged to form Health Squared Medical Scheme, as from 1 January 2019.
Independent auditors confirmed that 93% of members voted for the merger, and the schemes have extensively engaged with the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) and, with their involvement, the merger process is now subject to final approval by the CMS and Competition Commission.
Health Squared will be administered by Agility Health, which is currently the managed care provider and administrator for both Spectramed and Resolution Health.
The launch of Health Squared forms part of an overall strategy to protect the interests of members while strengthening the service offering in the context of future developments in the South African healthcare landscape.
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Free Medical-Aid, Hospital and Funeral Plan and Insurance Quotes at www.MedSure.co.za
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Mediese selfbetalings styg met skokkende 13,4%
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Die brood het gekrimp, maar ons betaal nou meer daarvoor.
Só het ’n ekonoom die verhoging van meer as 13% in selfbetalings deur mediesefondslede die afgelope jaar beskryf.
Verbruikers wat elke jaar swaar trek aan die premies vir hul mediese fondse het boonop nog verlede jaar R29,7 miljard uit hul eie sak opgedok.
Dit is 13,4%, of ’n hele R2,5 miljard, meer as die vorige jaar, toon die jongste jaarverslag van die Raad op Mediese Skemas (RMS).
Boonop word dié syfer onderskat omdat dit net bereken word op die rekeninge wat lede indien waarvoor hulle self betaal het.
Die selfbetalings is die bedrae waarvoor geëis is wat fondse nie betaal nie.
“Dit kan ’n onderskatting wees van die werklike bedrag wat self betaal word omdat lede nie altyd hul eise aan hul fondse stuur wanneer hul voordele opgedroog het nie,” het die RMS in die verslag gesê.
Johann van Tonder, ’n ekonoom en navorser vir Momentum, het gesê mediese inflasie meet nie die styging in bybetali
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