Southern Africa: A Bad Case of the Vapours Over Vaping

After half a dozen deaths allegedly associated with vaping and a surge in teenage e-cigarette use, US President Donald Trump has proposed banning flavoured e-cigarette liquids,… Read more »

Africa: Mugabe's Foreign Hospital Treatment - Time for Africa to Stop Funding 'Medical Tourism'

Robert Mugabe died on 6 September 2019 in a foreign hospital - linking his fate with those of millions of Zimbabweans who fled their homeland due to his four decades-long poor… Read more »

South Africa: Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku Says Department 'Is Beginning to Change'

To mark the end of his first 100 days in office, Bandile Masuku, Gauteng Health MEC, reflected on the strides the department has made, hinting that the story 'is beginning to… Read more »

South Africa: NHI Pulse - Inadequate Governance Arrangements Could Be the NHI's Achilles Heel

A lack of public participation and transparency, and the minister of health being given too much power - exploring some key concerns with NHI's proposed governance arrangements. Read more »

South Africa: State Pathology System a Boon to NHI

For National Health Insurance (NHI) to succeed, a number of building blocks are essential. One such building block is our pathology services. Dr Tim Tucker argues that the National… Read more »

South Africa: MPs Tell the Elders Their Concerns About Health Insurance

On Tuesday, 3 September 2019, The Elders were in Parliament to discuss the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and the lessons South Africa can learn from other countries. Read more »

South Africa: Limpopo Aeromedical Service Fails to Get Off the Ground

The Limpopo health department has 'noted the media reports which allege irregularity in the awarding of the aeromedical services tender by the department'. Read more »

South Africa: What Primary Healthcare May Look Like Under NHI - a Proposal

Many South Africans have difficulty imagining what the National Health Insurance will look when implemented. There has been work done in South Africa to explore what primary… Read more »

South Africa: To NHI or Not to NHI, That Is the Question. a Serious One

The government does need to be aware that the National Health Insurance is wide open to corruption. It should show more interest in engaging and avoid mixing facts. Read more »

South Africa: The Shot-Caller and the NHI - Can Zweli Mkhize Pull This Off?

Can the health minister fix our health system and what will it take? Here's what Mkhize's character, views and his past experience as a doctor tell us. Read more »

Africa: Lead in the Blood - the Poisoning of a Generation

A study by University of Zambia researchers published in 2015 in the journal 'Chemosphere' found that each of the 246 children under the age of seven it screened had enough lead in… Read more »

South Africa: National Health Insurance - Is It About Transformation or Patronage?

When we see an array of private sector stakeholders pretending to support the National Health Insurance Fund, it should raise red flags to all who care about South Africa. Read more »

South Africa: NHI - in Search of Common Ground

What are the politics of the controversial NHI? What specific concerns do people of South Africa have with the NHI Bill and what it will take for them to find common ground with… Read more »

South Africa: Activist Anna Motase Did Not Have to Die Without Dignity

It is a disgrace that indigent patients are left to die without assistance for their stressed families - or a government-supported hospice to provide some dignity in their last… Read more »

South Africa: To Have or Not to Have an NHI

We must build an equitable, unified and sustainable health system that delivers good-quality healthcare to all according to need rather than means (an important distinction that… Read more »

South Africa: The National Health Insurance Bill Is a Blueprint for Disaster

The National Health Insurance Bill is a terrible idea that will have dreadful consequences, not only for the 15% of the population that benefit from private healthcare, but also… Read more »

South Africa: A Tragedy That's Indicative of SA's Failing Health Systems

As Parliament prepares to debate the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and as the Department of Health begins work on laying the foundations for the NHI fund, judges from the… Read more »

South Africa: Why South Africa's Plans for Universal Healthcare Are Pie in the Sky

What South Africans don't need is another five years of pretence that this team can create a brand new health system out of the ashes of the two existing systems. Unfortunately,… Read more »

South Africa: Forget NHI - Strengthen What We Have, and Build What We Need - Jobs

Medicine alone is rarely the answer to public health crises. Jobs, good education, safe neighbourhoods, housing and healthy food are what South Africans need to rectify the gross… Read more »

South Africa: The NHI Dream Must Be Built From Below

Universal, single-payer health insurance is what South Africa needs - but we can only make it viable by filling the data and innovation gaps that bedevil our public health system. Read more »

South Africa: The NHI and Its Aspirations for Universal Healthcare - Points of Contention

While South Africa's ambitions to offer more inclusive healthcare sounds laudable and pays homage to notions of inclusiveness and solidarity, the rapid and unfolding reality of… Read more »

South Africa: Is the National Health Insurance Bill Open to a Constitutional Challenge?

For the privileged South Africans who have private health insurance, the National Health Insurance Bill is a profound shock. The need for a better healthcare system for all South… Read more »

South Africa: Nicholas Crisp - a Man On a Mission to Make NHI Work

In the cacophony of dissent over the National Health Insurance Bill, Dr Nicholas Crisp seems a rare voice of reason. Indeed, he's almost persuasive. Read more »

South Africa: NHI Bill Is Not What the ICU Doctor Ordered

Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize appears surprisingly calm for a politician at the centre of a tsunami. That can mean one of two things: either he is a seasoned commander who… Read more »

Africa: African Woman to Lead UNAIDS

She is an African, feminist and human rights activist who has just been appointed to arguably one of the most important jobs in coordinating and leading the international AIDS… Read more »