Health
June 30, 2010
Crab shells could be used to treat wounds
Tamar Kahn
Business Day
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is investigating the prospects of turning a derivative of crab shells into nanofibre membranes for cheap hi-tech wound dressings. Scientists are trying to find a way to combine chitosan nano-fibres with low-cost textile dressings, hoping to get the best both materials have to offer, according to CSIR researcher Valencia Jacobs. Chitosan is derived from chitin, which is found in crab shells. It has a long history of medical applications as it is nontoxic, hypoallergenic, assists clotting, and has antibacterial properties.
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June 30, 2010
New attempt by Basson to stop medical council inquiry collapses
Franny Rabkin
Business Day
A further attempt by Wouter Basson to stop a disciplinary inquiry by the Health Professions Council of SA failed yesterday, when Judge Eberhard Bertelsmann said his case had no prospect of success. Unless Dr Basson applies to the Supreme Court of Appeal for special leave to appeal, yesterday’s ruling means he will have to face six charges of professional misconduct on his involvement in an apartheid-era biological warfare programme. In 2002, Dr Basson was acquitted of criminal charges related to Project Coast, and South African Defence Force research into biological and chemical warfare. But he still faced charges of professional misconduct.
June 24, 2010
Early detection of TB among HIV-infected could avert many deaths
Tamar Kahn
Business Day
Many unnecessary deaths could be averted if patients infected with both HIV and tuberculosis (TB) were diagnosed and treated earlier, a study at Edenvale hospital in KwaZulu-Natal has found. The study provided evidence of the devastating toll TB was taking on people infected with HIV who do not have adequate access to healthcare, said Ted Cohen, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, published this week in the journal PLoS Medicine.
June 08, 2010
Medical aid task team’s fate uncertain
Tamar Kahn
Business Day
Council for Medical Schemes registrar Dr Monwabisi Gantsho has been in the job barely a week and has already had to put out fires after one of his officials stunned the private healthcare industry on Friday with news that the task team on prescribed minimum benefits had been shelved. The task team offers the council and the industry an opportunity to resolve a long-running row over the extent to which schemes are liable for their members’ claims for prescribed minimum benefits without resorting to the courts, something Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has made clear he opposes.
May 28, 2010
The Bottom Line
Dave Marrs
Business Day
Private hospital groups’ reservations about Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s proposals to introduce a pricing commission for the private sector are hardly surprising. The government’s aim is, after all, to put a lid on medical inflation by limiting the ability of service providers such as hospitals to increase prices at will. In the past, the medical schemes achieved this through collective bargaining, until the Competition Commission stepped in six years ago, and declared the practice anticompetitive.
May 11, 2010
Medical aids, council thrash out benefits
Tamar Kahn
Business Day
The Council for Medical Schemes is to convene a high-stakes meeting today to try to resolve a row with the industry over the extent to which schemes are liable for members’ claims for prescribed minimum benefits. The Medical Schemes Act says all medical schemes must provide all their members with cover for prescribed minimum benefits, a basic basket of care that includes emergency medical conditions, 270 diseases and 25 chronic conditions.
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June 29, 2010
Warning on national health insurance
Luphert Chilwane
Business Day
The South African Institute of Race Relations warned yesterday that any national health insurance system would threaten the excellence of private healthcare. This follows fears voiced earlier this year that such a system would affect most stakeholders in healthcare significantly, including hospital groups, medical schemes and medical-device vendors, and force private providers to seek revenue abroad. The institute report, released yesterday, reviews public and private healthcare, the uptake of health insurance by the black middle class, and the viability of the mooted national health insurance system.
June 18, 2010
Nurses can manage HIV treatment as well as doctors, study shows
Tamar Kahn
Business Day
Nurses do as good a job as doctors do at monitoring patients on HIV/AIDS drugs, a new study shows, lending weight to a recent government decision to introduce “task-shifting” to try to meet its ambitious treatment targets. SA has the world’s largest number of people infected with HIV, and until recently only a doctor could initiate and manage patients’ treatment. But with too few doctors on hand, the government is looking to nurses to help. In April it introduced a new policy allowing suitably qualified nurses to prescribe antiretroviral medicines and manage patients, with backup from more specialised doctors for complicated cases.
June 02, 2010
Workers at private hospitals to strike
Alistair Anderson
Business Day
Workers at Netcare will strike from today over wages. The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of SA said yesterday a strike would be held from today in five of SA’s provinces. The union represents nursing and administrative staff. The union’s general secretary Noel Desfontaines said picketing by his members last Wednesday had not led to management taking action to address workers’ concerns, so striking was the “next best option”. “The strike will show how serious we really are,” he said.
May 18, 2010
A pharmacy at Woolies seemed a good idea
Dave Marrs
Business Day
What on earth is going on with that little pharmacy venture between Woolworths and private hospital group Netcare? In 2007, Netcare marketing director Tumi Nkosi said the company hoped to have a dozen co-branded pharmacies in Woolworths stores within as many months. Three years later, there are still only three dispensaries: one in the small Kloof Street shopping centre in Cape Town, and two in Johannesburg, in Athol and Rivonia.
May 07, 2010
The repair job
Hilary Prendini Toffoli
Financial Mail
It was once the domain of only the rich and the vain, mainly women. Now, as the business world gets increasingly cut- throat, and the need to stay on top more urgent, the stigma attached to the idea of men having plastic surgery is vanishing. “Male patient numbers are on the increase,” says Dr Moshe Fayman, who operates at the Rosebank Clinic in Johannesburg and has been an aesthetic surgery specialist for two decades. “Their motivation is different from that of women. Male professionals who wish to extend their careers and remain more competitive in the marketplace commonly request facial rejuvenation.
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MORE ARTICLES:
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Private sector vital to a healthcare revolution
May 07, 2010
Schemes keen on a pricing commission
May 07, 2010
Dominant industry players are stifling competition
May 07, 2010
Public-private partnerships in health sector face challenges
May 07, 2010
Limited stocks of flu vaccines targeted at high-risk patients
May 06, 2010
Health scheme could cost a cool R216bn
May 02, 2010
The rot stops here
April 16, 2010
Self-medication works
April 09, 2010
Provinces overspend by billions on health
March 26, 2010
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