When Bonokuhle Khali died in Nkonjeni District Hospital in Zululand, nurses left his body in a dimly lit corner in the male ward where rats spent hours eating the flesh on his face.
As his body lay just metres from sick patients in the ward, the rodents scurried under and over the sheet that covered it, chewing on his nose and lips.
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FPD was granted funding by MSD Global to implement a project to improve maternal and infant survival by improving the quality of emergency care for pregnant mothers and/or new born babies during ambulance transit between health facilities.
The project purpose is to improve maternal and infant survival by improving the quality of emergency care to pregnant mothers and/or new born babies during ambulance transit between health facilities through a combination of expert technical advice, material development, and training designed to develop the competency of advanced, intermediate and basic life support workers employed by government obstetric EMS.
The intended outcome of the project is to reduce maternal mortality through provision of high quality, standardised care and management during inter-facility maternal transportation. The work has significant potential to have an immediate impact on maternal and perinatal deaths in South Africa and will directly contribut
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The Western Cape’s biggest hospital is in such a dilapidated state that it will have to be shut down – and replaced.
This is what Parliament’s portfolio committee on health was told on Wednesday.
Head of the Western Cape Health Department, Beth Engelbrecht, told the committee the Hospital was in a dire state, its condition contributed to the billion-rand backlog in maintenance for provincial hospitals.
“Tygerberg Hospital is under severe pressure. The CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) assessed it and said the hospital must be replaced. We have spent R700 million just on maintenance in recent years and you walk through the hospital and you can’t see it – it is sewerage lines, gas lines and water lines,” she said.
Engelbrecht said it would cost an estimated R10 billion to replace the hospital. She said the department was canvassing National Treasury for funding.
Tygerberg Hospital works in partnership with Stellenbosch Univers
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The South African Committee of Medical Deans (SACoMD) has called on the government to take drastic steps to address the ongoing health crisis in the country.
In a statement‚ the committee said that despite multiple interventions on the part of the minister of health and the National Department of Health‚ it was of the view that the health system in South Africa remained in crisis.
“The Cabinet’s recent decision to place the North West Health Department under administration of the national government in the wake of the health worker protests and the appointment of the Intervention Task Team in the Gauteng Health Department to advise on a turn-around strategy are indicative of a limping and indeed failing health system‚” the committee said. “The Deans are calling on Government to take drastic steps to address the systemic failures in the provincial health departments as a matter of priority‚” it added.
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TEMBISA Hospital in Ekurhuleni serves 2,5 million people and delivers 16 000 babies a year but only has 840 beds.
This was revealed yesterday by hospital CEO Dr Lekopane Mogaladi during an oversight inspection conducted by the DA.
Mogaladi said patients often have to sleep on stretchers or mattresses on the floor.
He said the hospital and a private partner had plans to open a prefab medical ward with 24 beds in August. The CEO said the hospital desperately needs 49 more nurses but the Gauteng Health Department has only given them permission to fill four posts.
Head of nursing Wilfred Mothwane said the hospital should have at least 623 more nurses.
“Some of the current nursing staff are going to retire soon. We deliver 42 babies daily with a limited number of midwives,” said Mothwane.
DA Gauteng shadow health MEC Jack Bloom said: “Tembisa would benefit if the health department expanded Edenvale Hospital and built a medical facility in Kempton Par
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If you were born with blood pressure on the low side, that’s good news – but there are still a few things worth knowing about this condition.
Having low blood pressure in your genetic make-up means you don’t face the risk of developing heart problems or having a stroke as a result of high blood pressure. However, a sudden drop in blood pressure can indicate something more serious.
What is considered low blood pressure?
Low blood pressure, or hypotension, is a blood pressure measurement of 90/60mm Hg* or below. A normal or ideal blood pressure reading is between 120/80 and 90/60mm Hg. Blood pressure can vary considerably over short periods, depending on:
Most people with chronically low blood pressure aren’t even aware of it, and if you have
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The DA said it was shocked to learn that over R6-million has been spent on security at Kempton Park Hospital since its shut down in 1997.
This was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Infrastructure Development, Jacob Mamabolo, in a written reply to the DA’s Kempton Park constituency head, Refiloe Nt’sekhe.
“According to MEC Mamabolo, R6 932 541.35-m has been spent by the department on guarding this defunct hospital,” Nt’sekhe said on Monday.
In addition, the MEC confirmed that the hospital would be demolished and the process will begin in September at an estimated cost of R127-m.
This hospital should never have been shut down in the first place, Nt’sekhe added.
“By having kept this hospital open, there would not have been as much pressure on Tembisa Hospital, which is clearly not coping with the influx of patients. Residents in this area are forced to make use of only Tembisa Hospital.
“R127-m is a lot of money to be allocated to the demol
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The greatly excessive use of antibiotics in food production in recent decades has made many bacteria more resistant to antibiotics. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has estimated that antibiotic use in animal husbandry, poultry farming and aquaculture in the US is over four times USDA recommended levels. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) has estimated that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the USA are used on animals.
Cheap antibiotics prone to abuse
Antibiotics are used to ensure better health and survival of animals bred for food, but they are also believed by many farmers to promote growth. As prices of antibiotics remain attractively low, they offer the prospect of higher earnings from greater output at low cost. Hence, there is little or no market incentive to reduce excessive, if not indiscriminate use, and hence the abuse of antibiotics. Thus, such efforts to increase farmer incomes and profitabili
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Everyone knows about KZN’s cancer crisis but no one is talking about the other provinces that operate on just one radiation oncologist – or less…
There is not a single radiation oncologist left in Limpopo or Mpumalanga, according to an annual survey conducted by the South African Society of Clinical and Radiation Oncology.
In fact, half the country’s provinces may be relying on just nine radiation oncologists in Gauteng as cancer services in five provinces buckle.
Gauteng has long been a beacon of hope for cancer patients, catering for the sickest of the sick from across almost half the country — but what happens when Gauteng oncology services begin to fail?
Meanwhile, a lone specialist in the North West caters for 3.7-million people as four provinces are forced to send patients to Gauteng.
There is not a single radiation oncologist left in Limpopo or Mpumalanga, according to an annual survey conducted by the South African Society of Clinical and Rad
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The woman was involved in a car accident at the end of April and has been in leg casts at the hospital since.
Eyewitness News has learnt that a woman who was admitted to the Tembisa Tertiary Hospital with two broken legs about three weeks ago has still not been treated.
The woman was involved in a car accident at the end of April and has been in leg casts at the hospital since.
The facility says one of the two operating machines has been out of order and doctors are battling to clear the backlog.
The hospital’s Chief Executive Dr Lekopane Mogaladi said: “The numbers that are coming have actually increased. We are managing to see them. In terms of P1, we see them within five minutes. The ones who are taking too long might be the P2 and P3, [they are] people with a longer waiting period. But it’s still within the framework of the provincial benchmark.”
He says the hospital also has an issue with CT scanners.
By: EWN
There still have not been any developments in the case of the baby’s body which went missing from the Pinetown mortuary.
The Daily News had on the plight of a distraught couple whose 7-month-old boy Sikhosana Mosemene had died suddenly on March 26 at a local informal day-care centre and whose body went missing from the mortuary.
The provincial Department of Health’s response yesterday has been disputed by frustrated father Seboda Mosemene.
Ncumisa Mafunda, department spokesperson, said the department was aware of the matter and was “extremely concerned”.
“Although the matter is also under investigation by the police, the department is carrying out its own continuous internal investigation,” Mafunda said.
“The department, through the acting director: forensic pathology services, has been in regular contact with the affected family, including as early as (Wednesday), and is considering several options aimed at minimising the family’s pain,
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The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has reported that 412 of the 973 laboratory-confirmed listeriosis cases are babies less than 28 days old.
Of these neonatal cases, 396 had early-onset listeriosis within six days of their birth.
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This brings the total to 121 cases in the province since a countrywide outbreak was first reported last year. Twenty-nine people have died in the Cape from the food-borne disease.
CAPE TOWN – The National Institute for Communicable Diseases says eight more listeriosis cases have been picked up in the Western Cape
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