Posts tagged with 'Treatment Action Campaign'

 

Less than 2000 state ambulances nationally may be on the road

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The national health department says it is against outsourcing emergency services. But with a grave shortage of ambulances, it may have no choice.
Just 1971 state ambulance vehicles are on the road nationally, a Bhekisisa survey reveals.

Health department guidelines say there should be at least 5 700 ambulances in operation — or one for every 10 000 people, according to standards quoted in the KwaZulu-Natal health department 2017 annual report. But with less than 2 000 actually functioning, there are only enough state emergency vehicles to cater for about a third of the population, data from provinces show.

A May audit of provincial health departments by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) found shortages of ambulances and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in several provinces.

In response, Bhekisisa requested the latest EMS vehicle and personnel numbers from all nine provinces. The Gauteng, North West, Western Cape, Mpumalanga, and Eastern Cape hea
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The Showdown at the UN: SA takes on the US for cheaper drugs

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When the US went to bat for Big Pharma in the fight against this killer disease, South Africa wasn’t having any of it. Here’s what happened next.

Graveyard cough, white plague, consumption. A killer by any name, TB has stalked the human race for aeons, lurking in crowded tenements or following miners deep underground, hanging in the air of our hospitals.

Always there, yet rarely spoken.

Today, it kills more people than HIV and malaria combined, the World Health Organisation (WHO) reports. In South Africa, Statistics South Africa’s latest data shows TB remains the leading cause of non-violent deaths.

Yet it took the United Nations 73 years to call a meeting on TB — and only because a very excitable South African health minister agitated enough for it.

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ATM pharmacy launches in Bloemfontein (Free State)

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Twin City Mall in Bloemfontein is the newest site for the innovative ATM pharmacy that gives patients with chronic illnesses repeat medication in under five minutes.

The Pharmacy Dispensing Unit (PDU) was unveiled on 25 September, during Pharmacy Month, at the central community shopping centre, which is on main transport routes and is open for extended hours including weekends and public holidays. The first such dispensing unit was launched in Alexandra in Gauteng in March this year.

The Pharmacy Dispensing Unit works like an ATM for medication, with Skype-like audio-visual interaction between patient and a remotely located tele-pharmacy contact centre. Patients are able to talk to pharmacists in a call centre 400km away in Centurion, Gauteng – showcasing the benefits of tele-pharmacy to patients in rural and outlying areas. This allows patients to access accurate medicine information and counselling from qualified pharmacy staff.

The dispensing data is hosted
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Why is alcohol withdrawal so hard on some people, the genes may hold the answer

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Some heavy drinkers suffer intense withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop drinking – some, less so. A new Yale-led international study of individuals with alcohol dependence has identified gene variants that may help explain why “detox” from alcohol is particularly difficult for some people.

The researchers reported their findings on 25 September in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, the official journal of the Research Society on Alcoholism.

“Alcohol takes more lives in the United States and South Africa every year than opioids, but there are few effective treatments to help people who have an alcohol use disorder,” said Andrew H. Smith, lead author of the study and a research affiliate in the laboratory of senior author Joel Gelernter, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Genetics and of Neuroscience. “For people who experience intense withdrawal symptoms, that’s one more barrier they have to face while
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Smart hospitals in Africa set to achieve more high performance facilities

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The next generation of healthcare buildings will be very different from the hospitals, clinics and general practitioner (GP) surgeries we are familiar with today.

A revolution in building design is already underway, which has largely been prompted by an acceleration of technological innovation, changing population demographics, shifts in expectations of how healthcare should be provided and environmental considerations.

In the pursuit of a prosperous future of inclusive and sustainable growth, where all African people have a high standard of living, quality of life, sound health and well-being, learning from global trends and adapting these to suit African conditions may be the key to building successful networks of healthcare infrastructure and medical facilities across the continent.

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A Gauteng hospital to be rebuilt for R1.3 billion

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Civil society organisations say that the cash-strapped province should rather save money and renovate the abandoned Kempton Park hospital.

Not only will the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development spend R127-milion to demolish the derelict Kempton Park Hospital, formerly known as Khayalami, they are planning to rebuild it for a whopping R1.3-billion.

This decision has been criticised by civil society organisations, who say the cash-strapped province should rather renovate the abandoned hospital and not waste money. The DA has promised to “closely monitor” the process.

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Costs ‘closely matched’

Defending their decision on why they could not renovate the Ekur
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Limos & spas:- Hlongwa’s role in R1.2b graft

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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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Brian Hlongwa, ANC chief whip, allegedly implicated in R1.2-billion health graft

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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..
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