Posts tagged with 'Wellness'

 

Mpumalanga woman claims nurses left her to deliver her own baby

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The Mpumalanga department of health has dismissed allegations that a 31-year-old woman was left alone to deliver her own baby at a local hospital.

Ester Mnisi claims that nursing staff at Mapulaneng Hospital in Bushbuckridge ignored her pleas for help on Sunday, September 17, when she went into labour.

“It was on Sunday, around six in the morning, when I arrived at the hospital with my family as my water broke.

“We greeted the nurses, but they just kept quiet until we asked why. Their response was that they were tired and had been delivering too many babies on that day.

“They said they were about to wrap up for the seven o’clock shift and that we should wait our turn,” Mnisi said.

The Mpumalanga woman said she could feel the baby coming, but when she told the nurses this, they sent her off to a room.

“I started screaming and begged for them to help me deliver the baby. They dismissed me and said my time to deliver was still far and they left and slamm
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Annual Global Burden of Disease Study : SA’s development vs health progress gap

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South Africa has one of the greatest misalignments in the world between development and health progress. It is one of five countries where actual health burden rates far exceed what one would expect based on its income and education levels, plus fertility rates. So says the Annual Global Burden of Disease Study.

“Life expectancy in South Africa is rapidly increasing, but that doesn’t mean we’re enjoying healthier lives. Communicable diseases like HIV, car accidents, and waves of violence are taking the lives of far too many South Africans, especially young people. This is one of the few countries in the world where the number of healthy years that men and women can expect to live has fallen over the past 25 years. We have a lot of work to do,” said Professor Charles Shey Wiysonge, director of Cochrane South Africa and a co-author of the study.

The study’s main findings for South Africa include:

A South African man born in 2016 can expect to live 59.2
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Topvyf chroniese siektes waaraan mediese fondse die meeste geld bestee

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’n Nuwe siekte het in 2017 kop uitgesteek onder die topvyf chroniese siektes waaraan mediese fondse wat Mediscor se dienste gebruik, die meeste geld bestee.

Die gebruik van generiese medisyne pleks van die oorspronklike is nou 59,9%.

Bipolêre gemoedsversteuring het asma onder die topvyf vervang.

Volgens Mediscor, die bestuurder van farmaseutiese voordele, se jaarlikse verslag het mediese fondse verlede jaar 64% van die totale besteding aan chroniese siektes wat onder voorgeskrewe minimum voordele val, aan die topvyf bestee.

Die topvyf (met die persentasie van die totale besteding aan chroniese siektes in hakies):

Hoë bloeddruk (26,5%)
Diabetes tipe 2 (13,6%)
MIV/vigs (10,8%)
Hoë cholesterol (8,2%)
Bipolêre gemoedsversteuring (5%)

Bipolêre gemoedsversteuring het asma in die vyfde plek vervang.

Die siektes se plek op die ranglys het effens verander gemeet aan die voorkoms per 1 000 lewens.

Die topvyf hier (met die getal per 1 000 lewens
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Noord-Kaapse LUR van gesondheid moet opdok vir bejaarde se onderbeen

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Die Noord-Kaapse LUR van gesondheid is Woensdag in die hooggeregshof in Kimberley beveel om die mediese en regskoste te betaal van ’n bejaarde man wat sy onderbeen weens mediese nalatigheid verloor het.

Regter Mpho Mamosebo het in haar uitspraak gesê dit ontstem haar dat ’n kundige soos dr. Qebelo Maseme, wat vir die LUR getuig het, partydig is. Sy het sy getuienis verwerp.

Patrick Erasmus (nou 76) se linkerbeen is in 2013 bokant die knie afgesit nadat hy aanvanklik vir ’n groottoon met infeksie behandel is.

Sy probleme het begin toe hy op 13 November 2012 vir ’n opvolgbesoek by ’n private dokter was.

Die dokter, wat intussen ’n skikking met Erasmus buite die hof bereik het, het ’n rekkie om die toon gebind om die toonnael te verwyder. Die toon is toegebind.

Twee besoeke later het die dokter Erasmus ingelig dat hy gangreen in die toon het en hom na die staatshospitaal in Kimberley verwys.

’n Senior dokter daar het op 20 November verde
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Anger as KZN hospital sends child home with gaping wound

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A child is back in a KwaZulu-Natal hospital after being discharged with a gaping bleeding wound‚ forcing his aunt to turn to Twitter to demand help.

But the health department disputes the version of events.

The 8-year-old boy was discharged from Madadeni hospital in Newcastle on Monday with an open wound‚ following an appendix operation.

His aunt‚ Gabi Manana‚ asked her friend to tweet the pictures of the child’s festering incision without identifying him.

Manana said: “I was looking for help‚ that is why I put that thing on Twitter.”

The tweet asked national health department officials for help.

The boy was in too much pain to walk on Monday‚ said Manana.

People who viewed the tweet were worried the large uncovered wound could become septic.

On Monday night‚ Health Department spokesman Joe Maila responded to the tweet saying he had called Kwazulu-Natal health officials.

They called the child’s aunt on Monday night.

On Tuesda
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Probe exonerates Livingstone Hospital in death and maggots row

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Livingstone Hospital investigations have found that nobody can be held liable for two shocking incidents in which a patient fell to his death from the fifth floor and maggots hatched in the wound of another.

But the family of Zakes Mbeki, 29, who fell from the fifth story of the hospital early on Christmas morning, after he was admitted forseizures, want an inquest magistrate to decide who was responsible.

Clint Morris, whose leg wound became infested with maggots after he allegedly begged nurses for days to change his surgical dressings, has vowed to ensure that the hospital admits to wrongdoing.Morris, 40, had been injured in a scooter accident in December.

Eastern Cape health department superintendent-general Dr Thobile Mbengashe ordered an investigation into why maggots had hatched in Morris’s wound.

Provincial health department spokesman Sizwe Kupelo said investigators had concluded in both cases that nobody could be held responsible.

He said it w
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The maddening state of Gauteng’s psychiatric facilities

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A massive shortages of hospital beds for psychiatric patients in Gauteng is compromising patient care.

Gauteng is short of about 2700 psychiatric beds which means that psychiatric patients have to be admitted to general wards where there is no security, thus posing a threat both to themselves and others.

This was revealed recently by Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa in a 22-page statement handed to the Gauteng Legislature in response to questions about the state of psychiatric care for hospitalised patients.

By the time a person with a psychiatric illness is hospitalised, their symptoms are usually severe and patients may be suicidal or psychotic.

The World Health Organisation (using prevalence US figures) estimates that up to three percent of a population will have severe psychiatric conditions and need hospitalisation. This excludes figures for people with substance abuse-related disorders and post-traumatic stress – so it is likely to be an under-esti
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Nearly 2 million will lose private healthcare if tax reform happens

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The government’s plan to ditch medical aid tax credits will have a disastrous effect on already cash-strapped South Africans and force nearly 2 million people onto the over-stretched state health system.

If the tax credit is removed, 22% of medical aid users will not be able to afford cover, Stellenbosch economics consultancy Econex warned in a report published on Friday – 1.9 million of the 8 million medical aid members, including children, will have to drop out of the private healthcare system.

In a national health insurance policy document released in July, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said he wanted to remove the tax credit to users, which amounts to R20-billion a year.

Medical aid schemes’ members get a tax reduction of R3,636 a year – or R303 a month. Motsoaledi said then that “the tax credit … we believe, is unfair”.

Economist Paula Armstrong, author of the Econex analysis, said the rebate was intended to “alleviate some pressure on the state [
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Tygerberg Hospital performs its first deep brain stimulation

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A man with tardive dystonia became the first adult to undergo deep brain stimulation (DBS) at a Western Cape state hospital. His condition drastically improved following the procedure at Tygerberg.

Until now it had only been performed on a few children at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital.

The dystonia was a side effect of an anti-psychopathic medication prescribed to the patient for bipolar disorder. However, the dystonia persisted after the medication was discontinued. By the time the DBS operation was performed, the patient had already been confined to bed for six months.

The operation was performed by Dr Armin Gretschel, a neurosurgeon with Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS). The equipment was provided by Medtronic.

According to Gretschel, two very thin electrodes were implanted in the globus pallidus on both sides of the brain to block the electrical impulses causing the movement disorder. Healthy brain tissue is n
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Edenvale hospitaal erg gevandaliseer deur ontevrede pasiënte

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Sekere dele van die Sizwe hospitaal in Edenvale is erg beskadig deur ‘n brand wat deur ontevrede pasiënte aangerig is.

Die aanleiding daartoe was dat ‘n verpleegster dwelms en drank gekonfiskeer het wat pasiënte ingesmokkel het. Dit het hulle woedend gemaak.

Hulle het daarop deur die hospitaal beweeg en enigiets wat breekbaar was, gebreek. Die gebou is erg gevandaliseer en die kombuis en ruskamers is skynbaar totaal vernietig.

Die hospitaal spesialiseer in die behandeling van vigs en tuberkulose.

Foto – Die Sizwe Tropiese Siektes Hospitaal, in ‎Edenvale, Johannesburg.
Die Vryburger, 22-08-2017

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Robot-aided surgery now available in Eastern Cape Province

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The first robot-assisted surgeries to treat prostate cancer in the Eastern Cape were performed by Netcare Greenacres urologists Dr Hannes Brummer and Dr Johan Coetzee this week following the installation of the Da Vinci Si robotic surgical system at the hospital.

Similar robotic systems have been installed at Netcare hospitals in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

Coetzee and Brummer have been training in South Africa and Europe to perform robot-assisted surgery.

Netcare hospital division managing director Jacques du Plessis said that after robotic surgery systems had been introduced in other provinces there had been an increased number of referrals from other provinces.

“We have now brought the technology and capacity for robotic-assisted procedures to the Eastern Cape.

“We identified a need for the intricate and highly complex interventions the Da Vinci Si system enables trained surgeons to achieve,” he said.

Netcare Greenacres Hospital general man
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Kind in Wes-Kaap dood aan witseerkeel

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’n 10-jarige meisie van die Nomzamo-township naby die Strand is dood en drie familielede is besmet met die hoogs aansteeklike bakteriële siekte witseerkeel, het die Wes-Kaapse gesondheidsdepartement Maandag bevestig.

Die meisie het op 3 Augustus positief getoets vir die siekte en is die volgende dag dood “weens die erns van die siekte”, sê Mark van der Heever, woordvoerder van die departement.

Die siekte is ook by die meisie se ma en twee sibbe gediagnoseer nadat die departement al haar gesinslede getoets het in ’n poging om die verdere verspreiding te keer.

Hulle het medikasie en entstowwe gekry,” sê Van der Heever.

“Meer as 600 individue is in hierdie spesifieke gemeenskap ingeënt,” sê hy.

Volgens die Wêreldgesondheidsorganisasie is 30 000 gevalle van witseerkeel en 3 000 sterftes wêreldwyd in 2000 aangemeld, in vergelyking met byna 100 000 infeksies in 1980.

Hulle het medikasie en entstowwe gekry,” sê Van der Heever.

MEER
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Could you have hepatitis and not know it?

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According to the World Health Organisation, Africa has one of the highest hepatitis infection rates in the world. Sadly, many people are unaware they have it.

Hepatitis affects 60 million people in Africa. Worldwide, an estimated 325 million people are living with chronic hepatitis-B virus (HBV) or hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infections.

What makes this particularly concerning is that many are unaware that they have hepatitis and are at risk of a slow progression to chronic liver disease, cancer and even death.

What is hepatitis?

Hepatitis is an inflammatory disease of the liver. The condition can be self-limiting or can progress to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or cancer.

The most common cause of hepatitis is due to infection by one of the hepatitis viruses but it can be caused by other infections, medication, alcohol, toxic substances and certain autoimmune diseases.

What are the different hepatitis viruses?

There
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Doctors Sound Alarm That SA Mental Healthcare Is Collapsing

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While almost all the previous Life Esidimeni psychiatric patients have been transferred from the NGOs in Gauteng back into hospitals, a group of doctors have warned that the psychiatric structure in South Africa is collapsing.

Reports reveal that in some mental health hospitals there are no psychiatrists, and none of the provinces have organised community-based psychiatric services at present. The South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) said even 150 days after the Health Ombudsman released a report, many hospitals were still facing a shortage of staff with minimal resources.

The president of the SASOP, Professor Bernard Janse van Rensburg, told Health24 that South Africa’s healthcare system is totally fragmented and broken. “Esidimeni was just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. At the beginning of this year, Health Ombudsman Professor Malegapuru Makgoba said the death toll of mentally ill patients who were transferred from Life Esidimeni to 27 NGOs w
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Ground Breaking operation: Youngest child in Africa gets mechanical heart

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A five-year-old KwaZulu-Natal boy made history when he became the youngest person in Africa to receive a mechanical heart implantation. In what is considered a ground breaking operation doctors from the Maboneng Heart Institute‚ at the Netcare Sunninghill Hospital‚ inserted a heart ventricular assist device (HVAD) into Mnotho Mndebele’s “severely damaged” heart which helps it..
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