Proper use of clinics ‘can ease burden of hospitals’

Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has vowed to tackle the negative perceptions over standards and quality of primary healthcare facilities.

Health Minster Aaron Motsoaledi said greater utilisation of clinics, alongside a campaign against diseases caused by poor lifestyles, could reduce pressure on overburdened hospitals. He added that the government planned to spend billions of rand in the next five to ten years repairing and building new clinics, district and provincial hospitals. There would also be a increased focus on non-communicable diseases.

Too few doctors in training

Medical schools turn away thousands of applicants.

The shortage of doctors is hamstringing the health services but medical schools are turning away thousands of aspirant medical practitioners every year. The eight medical schools can train a total of 2 000 first year medical students a year and South Africa produces 1 200 doctors a year. About 12 500 doctors are needed urgently to staff hospitals. It is the Health Professions Council that can approve an increase in students, according to strict student-lecturer ratios.

Small open medical schemes in danger

More mergers are likely as prescribed minimum benefit ruling tightens screws.

The 2012 benefit cycle might prove more difficult for smaller medical schemes and could threaten the existence of smaller players in the open schemes environment, health insurance experts said. Global Credit Ratings (GCR) said that medical schemes faced a number of challenges in the short term, including slow membership growth, and schemes might find the forthcoming cycle tougher than expected as the ruling on paying prescribed minimum benefits in full was predicted to have a negative effect on some scheme’s finances. This applies especially to smaller schemes that did not have designated service providers in place. These challenges could lead to mergers between schemes.

Gauteng labs restart services

Laboratory services within Gauteng public hospitals have resumed.

The services were resumed after a more than R700-million payment was made by the province to service providers. All laboratory services were expected to be operational by the end of the week.

HIV rate way down thanks to condoms

The rate at which South Africans contracted HIV fell by 30 percent between 2000 and 2008.

The decline in the rate at which South Africans contracted HIV, mostly due to condom use, is published in a new study in the Royal Society journal Interface last month. The study used mathematical models to work out what is contributing to the significant decrease in HIV infections.

Health standards compliance ‘vital to NHI plan’

The proposed independent office of health standards compliance was a vital step for the introduction of a National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi was briefing Parliament’s health committee on proposed changes to the National Health Act that will establish an independent office of health standards compliance, as opposed to the current office that reports to the director-general of health. The Minister said there were two pre-conditions for the introduction of NHI. The first was a complete overhaul of the public healthcare sector to ensure the quality of service in public hospitals was dramatically improved. The second was that the prices charged in the private healthcare sector had to be regulated, “there is no doubt about that”.

Medical innovations raise hopes of many

With the pace of technology accelerating, the announcements of new medical breakthroughs have become a daily occurrence that could affect South Africans in the near future.

One important innovation is the genetically modified mosquito. Scientists have discovered ways of modifying the genetic composition of mosquitoes to render them sterile. Pushing this concept further, scientists are now working on modifying the genes in a way that will prevent the insect from carrying the malaria pathogen. Another area is a new class of diabetes drug that is awaiting approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration. Called SGLT2 the drug lowers the level of sugar in the blood by causing it to be excreted in the urine. With 60 percent of South Africans overweight, obese or morbidly obese, the “gastric pacemaker” also sounds hugely beneficial. The device fools the brain into thinking the stomach is full. The only downside to many of these breakthroughs is the cost.

Shot in the arm for medical schools

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi announces plans to build new facilities to train doctors around South Africa over the next 14 years.

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has finally announced a major programme of works on many of South Africa’s academic hospitals, as well as plans to build a new tertiary hospital in Nelspruit. In addition a new medical school will be set up in Limpopo, linked to a brand new academic hospital. The Department estimates that the new facilities could cost more than R10-billion. The Department also plans to spend about R1.2-billion over the next three years to revitalise 122 nursing colleges.