Despite challenges, quality UHC ‘not unrealistic’: UCT’s Benatar
South Africa faces “enormous challenges”, but attaining widespread access to quality healthcare is not unrealistic – provided solid short-to-medium and long-term plans are enforced...
SAMA opposed to NHI Bill in current form
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) says while it remains supportive of the progressive realisation of Universal Health Coverage for people in South Africa,...
Top stories you may have missed
Here are some of the articles MedBrief Africa readers found the most interesting in the past week
CMS to scrap low-cost benefit options
In a surprising move, the Council for Medical Schemes has announced that all Low-Cost Benefit Options (LCBOs) used by low-income earners in the country...
Discovery states “unequivocal” support for NHI
Discovery Health (DH) has declared its unequivocal support for the NHI, saying it is supportive of any structural change that assists in strengthening and...
SAPPF urges government not to pass NHI Bill in current form
The South African Private Practitioners Forum (SAPPF) has requested government not to pass the NHI Bill in its current form, saying it lacks clarity...
Cure Day Hospitals among latest COHSASA accreditations
The healthcare facilities listed below have been awarded accreditation by The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA), a not-for-profit company (NPC)...
Prompt payment, CON issues addressed by NHI’s Crisp
Practitioners
will be paid in real time, no real need for a Certificate of Need, and services
will have to push ahead without a patient records...
OPINION: Proposed NHI throws constitutional caution to the wind
Manifested primarily in the 2019 National Health Insurance Bill and the 2017 National Health Insurance (NHI) White Paper, the NHI, by relegating medical scheme...
OPINION PIECE: The Marmite NHI
John Bercow, the recently-retired speaker of the United Kingdom parliament, was recently referred to by a reporter as “the marmite speaker”. The expression was developed,...
Immediate, shorter-term answers to current difficulties required: ASAIPA NHI Submission
A more
immediate or shorter-term answer to the difficulties currently faced in the
provision of healthcare must be prioritised, the Alliance of SA Independent
Practitioner Associations (ASAIPA)...
How can doctors help patients make healthy choices?*
The simple lifestyle choices you make every day can have a profound impact on your health. If we know what is good for us,...
Renewed calls for urgent law reform to limit surging medical negligence...
With medical negligence claims against the state now approaching R100 billion, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has reiterated the mantra of his predecessor, Aaron Motsoaledi...
CONNECTING THE DOTS: Digital health defined
This is the first in a series of articles on digital innovation in the medical field and how it will affect, improve and change...
Using antibiotics in preemies has lasting, potentially harmful effects
Although the use of antibiotics in premature
babies to ward off or treat potentially deadly bacterial infections is a lifesaver,
they also cause long-lasting collateral damage...
Shortcomings in UHC declaration, minister disappoints at UN: SECTION27
Reporting from the United Nations in New York to which it sent a team earlier in the week “to fight for changes to the...
Determining damages in medical malpractice claims
This is a useful judgment of M on behalf of L and Another (7202/2008) ZAGPPHC 128 (24 April 2019) at http://saflii.org/za/cases/ZAGPPHC/2019/128.html
The patient brought a...
AI may be as effective but not better than doctors to...
Artificial intelligence (AI) appears to detect diseases from medical imaging with similar levels of accuracy as healthcare professionals, according to the first systematic review...