Eskom suffered a net loss of R2.3-billion in 2018, the state-owned power producer revealed at it financial results presentation on Monday.
The power utility said its net cash from operations declined from R45.8-billion to R37.6-billion, as it struggled with leadership and operational challenges.
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A medical law expert has called for the thousands of qualified nurses who cheated in mid-year bridging exams to be struck off the roll.
“It would be tantamount to gross negligence to allow these nurses to practise,” said pharmacist, ethicist and medical law practitioner Shafrudeen Amod.
On May 10, staff nurses with a two-year qualification and employed at a clinic or hospital, wrote first- or second-year bridging course exams. Passing the exams qualifies them as better-trained “registered nurses” who earn more and have more responsibilities.
The High Court in Pretoria, which has invalidated the exams, heard that many nurses saw the question paper before they wrote the exam, and some had the answers memo, which they could have taken with them into the exams.
The implications are far-reaching.
Ethicist and qualified doctor Aimes Dhai, director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, said the suggestion in the court judgment that thousands of candidates che
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Inaccurate diagnosis, medication errors, inappropriate or unnecessary treatment, inadequate or unsafe clinical facilities or practices, or providers who lack training prevail in countries of all income levels.
This poor quality health services are holding back progress on improving health, according to a new joint report by the OECD, World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank.
The situation is worst in low and middle-income countries where 10% of hospitalised patients can expect to acquire an infection during their stay, as compared to 7% in high income countries. This is despite hospital acquired infections being easily avoided through better hygiene, improved infection control practices and appropriate use of antimicrobials.. At the same time, one in 10 patients is harmed during medical treatment in high income countries.
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The North West Health MEC, Dr Magome Masike, says the department is working towards recouping taxpayers’ money lost to mobile clinic, Mediosa.
“First, the company sent us an invoice of R24m out of the R30m pre-payment. We need to satisfy ourselves that the [work for] R24m has been done by going through the report, which goes up to the end of January 2018.
“Then we still need a report for February 2018, which covers the work done for the outstanding R6m. Until we satisfy ourselves with the work that has been done, we are not settled with Mediosa,” said the MEC.
According to Masike, the company recently sent out tow trucks to collect the mobile health units stationed at Madibogo in the Ratlou sub-district and Kagisano Molopo respectively.
With plans underway to recoup the lost tax money, Masike raised concerns about the claims made by Mediosa about the number of patients serviced.
“My concern is the number of people that Mediosa is claiming to have
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An entrepreneur has come up with a clever way to tackle the beast of medical scheme rip-offs. Instead of joining the throng of service providers who are squeezing private scheme members for ever greater sums, this Robin Hood of the healthcare sector has identified a way to claw back thousands of rands – for a modest fee.
Independent journalist Ed Herbst, who has an unwavering instinct to uncover news at every opportunity, discovered this enterprise while chatting to a neighbour. The details of this service are too important not to share, he reckons, highlighting how tens of thousands of rands are being directed back to their rightful owners. In a nutshell, the doctor who has started this service has made it his business to cut through complexities and legal nuances and has exposed questionable practices in the process. He can do it for less than R400, all in, and has saved people from bad credit records and cut the additional stress that comes with trying to find
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If you shun the sun, suffer from milk allergies, or adhere to a strict vegan diet, you may be at risk for vitamin D deficiency. Known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is produced by the body in response to skin being exposed to sunlight.
It is also occurs naturally in a few foods — including some fish, fish liver oils, and egg yolks — and in fortified dairy and grain products.
Vitamin D is essential for strong bones, because it helps the body use calcium from the diet. Traditionally, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with rickets, a disease in which the bone tissue doesn’t properly mineralize, leading to soft bones and skeletal deformities. But increasingly, research is revealing the importance of vitamin D in protecting against a host of health problems.
Symptoms and Health Risks of Vitamin D Deficiency
Symptoms of bone pain and muscle weakness can mean you have a vitamin D deficiency. However, for many people, the symptoms are
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The State of the Municipality Address (SOMA) placed the blame for the current Rand Water cuts on the former apartheid infrastructure. This message came from the Executive Mayor of Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM), Councillor Jacob Khawe, during his SOMA address hosted in the City Hall on June 26. Cllr Khawe said he had nothing against..
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According to the National Institute of Mental Health, “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a brain disorder marked by an ongoing pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity that interferes with functioning or development.”(1) It’s characterized by three key traits: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.
This condition, as well as ADD (attention deficit disorder), are diagnosed by observing behaviors. There is no medical test, such as blood tests or a brain scan, capable of diagnosing the condition.
Because of the vague nature of the qualifying characteristics that lead to an ADHD diagnosis, many kids are being unnecessarily medicated. In fact, many children who experience ADHD symptoms are simply experiencing behavioral issues that stem circumstances in their life at home and at school. Other medical conditions may also be responsible for their behavior.
What to Know Before Medicating your Child
Although
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The Hawks have arrested six officials for alleged fraud and corruption relating to the awarding of tenders at the Northern Cape Department of Health.
The six, aged between 39 and 50, were arrested in various places, including Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Kimberley on Tuesday in a joint operation with the assistance of the Tactical Response Team.
“The arrest of the suspects follows allegations of gross irregularities in the awarding of various infrastructure tenders without following due processes between 2013 and 2016 at the Northern Cape Department of Health.
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“At least R11m was allegedly shared amongst six companies attached to the six suspects to procure medical equipment,” the
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A Special Investigation Unit (SIU) report released this week provides new details more than R1.2-billion in graft at the Gauteng health department — from limousine-chauffeured luxury spa treatments to jobs for cash.
The 122-page document, which was released on Thursday, investigates the provincial health department’s conduct between January 2006 and May 2010 — for most of this period, between 2006 and 2009, the ANC’s chief whip in the Gauteng legislature, Brian Hlongwa, was the province’s health MEC.
The report was handed over to former President Jacob Zuma in March 2017, but was never made public.
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Want to know what the investigation says about bribes and what your tax money
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Families seeking to cool off don’t expect to pick up a nasty infection. Yet, outbreaks of a diarrhea-causing parasitic infection have doubled in recent years at swimming pools and water playgrounds in the United States, health officials warn.
At least 32 outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis were reported in 2016, compared with 16 outbreaks in 2014, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Crypto is the most common cause of diarrhea, the CDC says. It spreads when people come in contact with the feces of an infected person.
Otherwise healthy people can be sick for up to three weeks with watery diarrhea, stomach cramps, nausea or vomiting, the CDC warns. The infection can become life-threatening in people with compromised immune systems.
The cause? Adults or children sick with crypto-caused diarrhea are swimming in public pools despite their illness and further spreading the parasite, said Michele Hlavsa, chief of the CDC’s
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When he was the Gauteng Health MEC, Brian Hlongwa brought the department to its knees, the Special Investigations Unit has found.
Limousine-chauffeured luxury spa treatments, blatant graft and jobs for cash are just some of the allegedly corrupt activities the ANC’s Gauteng chief whip Brian Hlongwa and his staff were involved in, according to a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) report released today.
The report, which investigates the Gauteng health department’s conduct between 1 January 2006 to 14 May 2010, was handed over to former President Jacob Zuma in March 2017, but never made public. It was only released after public interest law organisation Section27 was able to obtain it via a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request.
Hlongwa was Gauteng’s Health MEC from 2006 to 2009.
The SIU found that more than R1.2-billion was lost to graft during his tenure. The 122-page document reveals never-before-seen details about the extent of rot at
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Parkinson’s disease (PD) which involves the death and malfunction of vital nerve cells in the brain, called neurons. This usually occurs in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra.
It leads to a reduction in a chemical called dopamine in the brain. Dopamine plays a vital role in regulating the movement of the body. A reduction in dopamine is responsible for many of the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
The disease develops gradually sometimes starting with a barely noticeable tremor in just one hand. The symptoms continue and worsen over time thereby damaging a part of the brain. At the early stage of the Parkinson disease, there is always stiffness of muscles especially in the face or the arms. This will make a person unable to show expressions like smiling, laughing, swinging the arms and will cause slurred speech.
Parkinson’s comes with age. Most people with Parkinson’s start to develop symptoms when they’re over 50, although around 1 in
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That influenza, or flu, is merely an indisposition and not that serious is a myth. Graham Anderson, CEO and principal Officer at Profmed says: “The truth is that the flu is actually a relentless and possibly life-threatening disease which kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide every year.”
Graham says it is also incorrect to believe that the virus is a natural occurrence and that almost everyone should expect to contract the ailment every year.
This flu shot can help keep you from catching the flu. “You can vaccinate against influenza but not the common cold so a person can still experience a cold following a flu shot,” he says.
As a matter of fact, most people are not aware of the distinct difference between a cold and the flu. The flu is caused by different virus types in contrast to a cold. Flu symptoms are usually more intense and sudden, with more serious complications like pneumonia, inflammation of the heart and other bacterial infectio
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Dead ANC members have been kept on its branch membership lists in what concerned party activists in Mpumalanga claim was part of a plan to inflate membership figures ahead of last year’s national conference.
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