healthcare system | SA News .com

These are the cheapest and most expensive medical aids in South Africa

Posted on July 19, 2018 Leave a comment

The latest GTC (formerly Grant Thornton Capital) Medical Aid Survey for 2018 has been released, which compares local medical aid schemes on cost to members across various levels of cover.

South Africa’s medical aid industry is facing an uncertain time ahead with government recently pushing through two new healthcare bills that are set to shake up the entire system ahead of the launch of the National Healthcare Insurance (NHI) scheme.

According to GTC, there are still many lingering questions that need to be answered in term of government’s plans – with many risks in the proposed changes that could lead to higher costs for consumers who rely of private healthcare.

“The NHI and amendments to the Medical Schemes Bill are inevitable. The disparity between the have’s (some eight million members) and the have-not’s (some 45 million) is real and needs addressing. Government intervention is urgently required,” it said.

“It is however equally importa
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Staatshospitale het ‘n te kort aan dokters – dit word nou ‘n krisis

Posted on July 4, 2018 Leave a comment

Die minister van gesondheid, Aaron Motsoaledi, het sy saak bepleit in ‘n verklaring waarin hy sê dat daar 14 onkologie apparate is wat elk R40 miljoen werd is, maar daar is geen spesialiste om die apparaat te gebruik nie.

Natal ondervind al maande lank ‘n probleem nie net met dokters nie, maar met mediese apparaat wat of stukkend of ondiensbaar is. Tans is daar een onkoloog in Natal in diens wat 1,3 miljoen kankerpasiënte moet behandel. Nou doen Motsoaledi ‘n beroep op privaat spesialiste om te kom help en die toerusting te gebruik.

Dit krap medici baie om omdat hy ‘n nuwe gesondheidstelsel te wil afdwing maar hy besef nie dat daar mediese personeel is wat die werk moet verrig nie. Kankerpasiënte moet tans in sekere hospitale tot vier maande wag voordat hul bestraling kan kry maar volgens die staat is dit nie “’n krisis” nie.

Deur: Die Vryburger

______________________________
Free Medical-Aid, Hospital and Funeral Plan and Insura
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Dr Aaron Motsoaledi is clueless – NHI cannot work in SA – to push ahead with it, is an act of desperation

Posted on July 4, 2018 Leave a comment

Plans by the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, to push ahead with the National Health Insurance (NHI), is an act of desperation. It is a decision doomed to failure from the outset.

The minister is completely out of touch with the crisis in the South African public health system, and this was highlighted by his denial of a crisis despite the damning report from the commissioner of the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC).

Recent presentations to the Portfolio Committee on Health by each of the provinces, the OHSC and the Auditor-General, painted a picture of a health system that has collapsed entirely. It is beyond a crisis, it has simply failed.

DA visits to hospitals and clinics around the country have exposed medicine shortages, equipment shortages and a severe shortage of beds. In most hospitals visited, infrastructure is collapsing and lack of maintenance in facilities is painfully obvious.

In Limpopo alone there is a backlog of 26 000 su
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The real reason SA’s doctors won’t deliver your baby

Posted on June 29, 2018 Leave a comment

Medico-legal litigation has exploded. As of March 2016, claims against the health department from the previous five years stood at more than R37‑billion. By October that year, the figure had jumped to R51‑billion — or a third of the whole public healthcare budget if we had to pay every cent.

The medico-legal litigation pandemic threatens not only our health system but also the very existence of our mothers and children.

When some see these figures, their first reaction is to condemn the health department and accuse it of absolute carelessness. Please be careful before drawing such conclusions. Ask yourself first: But what has changed?

It is common knowledge that, over the decades, an overwhelming number of medico-legal litigation cases were lodged against the Road Accident Fund (RAF).

The RAF has since been litigated into a state of near-bankruptcy and is finding it difficult to even pay legitimate claims. The minister of finance has tried to raise th
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480 narkotiseurs kan SA verlaat oor swak NGV

Posted on June 29, 2018 Leave a comment

Indien narkotiseurs meen dat die Nasionale Gesondheidsversekering (NGV) en die beoogde prysbeheer ’n bedreiging vir hul beroep inhou, kan tot sowat 480 of ’n derde van hulle die land verlaat.

Natalie Zimmelman, uitvoerende hoof van die Suid-Afrikaanse Vereniging van Narkotiseurs (Sasa), het Dinsdag op ’n mediakonferensie die uitslae van ’n peiling onder narkotiseurs oor onder meer die NGV bekend gemaak.

Sy sê narkotiseurs is ’n “hoogs sensitiewe en baie mobiele” arbeidsmag omdat meer as 40% van hulle ook in ander lande geregistreer is. Meer as 50% het reeds in ’n ander land gewerk.

“Hulle kan môre die land verlaat as hulle wil.”

’n Peiling wat verlede jaar vir die markondersoek oor private gesondheidsorg uitgevoer is se inligting is nou vrygestel.

Dit toon 35% of sowat 480 narkotiseurs oorweeg dit om in die komende vyf jaar die land te verlaat. Dit hou met sosio-ekonomiese bedreigings vir hul beroep en hul siening oor die gesondhe
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Hospital operate without Lights,Toilet Papers,Panado, and Pain Killers

Posted on June 27, 2018 Leave a comment

Hellen Franz Hospital at Blouberg Municipality ka Limpopo must be placed under Administration,how can a Hospital operate without Lights,Toilet Papers,Panado, and Pain Killers..?

We can not allow ANC’s Phophi Ramathuba and her incompetent Managers to continue with killing of our people,this Hospital is now a Mortuary coz even if you go there with scratched finger,you won’t last for two days,you’ll die like a sick Mosquito,many people died here due to negligent of incompetent staff..!!

This ANC Government with it’s Phophi are taking our people for a ride,she must resign together with Onica Moloi on Friday, otherwise she has to be charged for #genocide ,how can a hospital operate with candles..,in this winter,how can you allow patients to bath with Cold Water..?

Actually,where is DA and other opposition parties in this regard,,are they visiting these kinds of hospitals or just waiting for the 2019 Votes;who shall vote coz many lives shall be lost by then..?

Mr
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Doctor pleads for heaters for babies, gets departmental threats

Posted on June 22, 2018 Leave a comment

A Limpopo hospital is in such a state of disrepair that a doctor has taken to begging for donations to improve conditions for patients.

This act of caring, however, has led to the department coming down on him with threats of disciplinary action.

Patients at the WF Knobel Hospital in Ga-Matlala outside Polokwane have to brave icy winter nights sleeping in wards with broken windows, leading doctor LE Rambuwane to write a letter urging people to help him raise R15 000 to buy and install 50 heaters in the paediatric wards.

“It is with great sadness and embarrassment having to write this letter to you,” his letter starts.

“I serve in a public hospital, which lacks many things, and with very little support from the powers that be…” it continues, before his plea for the public to donate.

He hoped to raise R15 000, which would be used to buy heaters to be mounted in the paediatric wards. At the moment, he said, the patients were waiting with bated bre
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Nuwe gesondheidsorg in die vooruitsig

Posted on June 22, 2018 Leave a comment

Die afskaffing van bybetalings op mediese dienste is een van die aanbevelings van die voorgestelde wet op mediese dienste.

Volgens Aaron Motsoaelidi, minister van gesondheid, kan slegs 10% van die bevolking private gesondheidsorg bekostig en moet dit onmiddelik reggestel word.

Tussengangers gaan ook afgeskaf word om te verseker dat lede direk gelde aan die mediese fondse betaal. Die rykes moet nou die armes subsidieer en die jonger geslag moet die ouer geslag help en die gesonde mense moet die siek mense subsidieer. Hy sluit af deur te sê dat die oorskakeling ‘n massiewe reorganisasie van die totale gesondheidsorg stelsel gaan wees, beide privaat en openbaar.

Medici sê mense sterf daagliks in staatshospitale, diefstal van mediese voorraad en toerusting is aan die orde van die dag. Instandhouding van toerusting bestaan nie en personeel se betalings is agterstallig. Die totale gesondheidsorg van die staat is in chaos en al uitweg is dat privaat mediese
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Western Cape Health Department: Tygerberg Hospital must ‘be shut down and replaced’

Posted on June 8, 2018 Leave a comment

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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Cosatu urges Ramaphosa to sack Motsoaledi – While you at it sack the rest of the incompetent ministers as well!

Posted on June 7, 2018 Leave a comment

Cosatu has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to sack health minister Aaron Motsoaledi, arguing that he is directly responsible for the continued deterioration of the healthcare system in the country.

“People are losing their lives on a daily basis and this has reached crisis levels. What has disappointed Cosatu the most is Minister Motsoaledi’s denialism and scapegoating.”
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TEMBISA Hospital in Ekurhuleni – patients often have to sleep on stretchers or mattresses on the floor

Posted on June 4, 2018 Leave a comment

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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Cancer crisis: Where are South Africa’s radiation oncologists?

Posted on May 25, 2018 Leave a comment

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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Port Elizabeth’s Ernest Malgas drug rehabilitation centre for kids facing major problems

Posted on May 16, 2018 Leave a comment

The Eastern Cape’s only state-owned drug rehabilitation centre for children – a R67-million facility opened with much fanfare in Port Elizabeth just two years ago – is falling into disrepair, with rehab services compromised.

The electric fence at the Ernest Malgas drug rehabilitation centre in Red Location is no longer working, resulting in some of the drug-addicted children escaping.

It has one working geyser and a non-functioning clinic.

Residents also drink openly close to the centre, according to sources.

The centre was opened in April 2016.

Several people involved with the centre, who did not want to be named, raised their concerns last week.

They included: The broken electric fence and children escaping over the walls;
The non-functioning clinic, which has led to the children asking staff members, other than nurses, for pain tablets;
A staff member who stayed away from work for a year;
Broken pool tables, tabletennis tables and other do
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