South African Health Review 2016

Please read below for the link to the latest 2016 South African Health Review. Listed below is the chapters with links contained to the digital copy not hosted on this website. Following that is the cover to the review which is the link to the digital download.

  1. Health Policy and Legislation

    Andy Gray, Yousuf Vawda

  1. Analysing the progress and fault  lines of health sector transformation in South Africa

    Laetitia Rispel

  1. Water, sanitation and health: South Africa’s remaining and existing issues

    David Hemson

  1. Diet-related non-communicable diseases in South Africa: Determinants and policy responses

    Mark Spires, Peter Delobelle, David Sanders, Thandi Puoane, Philipp Hoelzel, Rina Swart 

  2. The contribution of specialist training programmes to the development of a public health workforce in South Africa

    Virginia Zweigenthal, Leslie London, William Pick 

  3. Disabling health: The challenge of incapacity leave and sickness absence management in the public health sector in KwaZulu-Natal Province

    Rajen N. Naidoo, Saloshni Naidoo, Sujatha Hariparsad

  1. Language barriers in health: Lessons from the experiences of trained interpreters working in public sector hospitals i n the Western Cape

    Ereshia Benjamin, Leslie Swartz, Linda Hering, Bonginkosi Chiliza 

  2. Bridging the gap between biomedical and traditional health practitioners in South Africa

    Mosa Moshabela, Thembelihle Zuma, Bernhard Gaede

  3. Achieving universal access to sexual and reproductive health services: The potential and pitfalls for contraceptive services in South Africa

    Naomi Lince-Deroche, Melanie Pleaner, Jane Harries, Chelsea Morroni, Saiqa Mullick, Cindy Firnhaber, Masangu Mulongo, Pearl Holele, Edina Sinanovic 

  4. Breastfeeding in South Africa: are we making progress?

    Lisanne du Plessis, Nazia Peer, Simone Honikman, René English

  1. MomConnect: an exemplar implementation of the Health Normative Standards Framework in South Africa

    Christopher Seebregts, Peter Barron, Gaurang Tanna, Peter Benjamin, Thomas Fogwill

  2. The contribution of congenital disorders to child mortality in South Africa

    Helen L. Malherbe, Colleen Aldous, David Woods, Arnold Christianson

  1. Integrating mental health into South Africa’s health system: Current status and way forward

    Marguerite Schneider, Emily Baron, Erica Breuer, Sumaiyah Docrat, Simone Honikman, Ashraf Kagee, Michael Onah, Sarah Skeen, Katherine Sorsdahl, Mark Tomlinson, Claire van der Westhuizen, Crick Lund

  1. Sex work and South Africa’s health system: Addressing the needs of the underserved

    Andrew Scheibe, Marlise Richter, Jo Vearey

  1. Trauma, a preventable burden of  disease in South Africa: Review of the evidence, with a focus on KwaZulu-Natal

    Timothy C. Hardcastle, George Oosthuizen, Damian Clarke, Elizabeth Lutge

  1. Strengthening the measurement of quality of care

    Ronelle Burger, Shivani Ranchod, Laura Rossouw, Anja Smith

  1. HIV and AIDS financing in South Africa: sustainability and fiscal space

    Mark S. Blecher, Gesine Meyer-Rath, Calvin Chiu, Yogan Pillay, Fareed Abdullah, Aparna Kollipara, Jonatan Davén, Michael Borowitz, Nertila Tavanxi

  1. Towards a transparent pricing system in South Africa: Trends in pharmaceutical logistics fees

    Varsha Bangalee, Fatima Suleman

  1. The development of a National Health Research Observatory in South Africa: Considerations and challenges

    Nobelungu J. Mekwa, Ashley Van Niekerk, Edith N. Madela-Mntla, Mohammed Jeenah, Glaudina Loots, Bongani M. Mayosi

  1. Health and Related Indicators
    Candy Day, Andy Gray

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Poor management blamed for bulk of drug stock outs

Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has blamed manufacturers for shortages of medicines including HIV and tuberculosis drugs, but a civil society coalition has alleged 80%of stock outs are due to poor management.

Community members have also complained about medicine stock outs.
In the Stop the Stock Outs Project’s latest survey, more than 40 percent of health facilities reported having experienced a HIV, TB drug stock out: Joe Gqabi and Alfred Nzo districts, Eastern Cape; Bojanala District, North West; Nkangala and Gert Sibande districts, Mpumalanga; and Lejweleputswa and Fezile Dabi districts, Free State.
According to Motsoaledi, recent reports by Times Live and eNCA regarding alleged widespread drug shortages promoted the minister’s early return last week from the World Health Organisation’s on-going, annual World Health Assembly in Geneva.

At a Pretoria press conference yesterday, Motsoaledi widespread shortages of drugs including the country’s three-in-one antiretroviral (ARVs) fixed-dose combination (FDC).

“The FDC is our flagship programme and we do everything in our power to protect it,” Motsoaledi said in a statement. “To make sure that there are not problems in this very important programme, we even implemented the practice of a national buffer stock whereby 10 percent of all the FDCs we provide are strategically stockpiled with a service provider in a warehouse.”

Motsoaledi also added that the county source the combination ARV from three different suppliers to guard against supplier problems affecting supply.

“At no stage did we have a shortage of FDC in the country,” he added.

As of September 2015, about 119,000 patients had been started on the FDC.

One in five facilities have experienced stock outs

The department recently released a list of at least 40 medications  -(comment by Vicki Pinkney-Atkinson  many of these critical for the treatment of NCDs, morphine and mental health medication)– that were running short at provincial depots nationwide. The department attributed the bulk of shortages to supplier constrained and shortages of the pharmaceutical ingredients used to make the drugs.

Stock outs of medicines are indicative of a bigger problem related to the management and accountability in a health system”

Comprised of civil groups including Medicines Sans Frontières, the Treatment Action Campaign and the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, the Stop Stock Outs Project (SSP) collects stock out reports from health workers and clinics nationwide.

The group recently surveyed more than 2,500 of the country’s 3,732 health facilities. According to the research to be presented at the upcoming SA AIDS Conference, one in five facilities reported experiencing an ARV or TB medication stock out.

According to a SSP statement released yesterday, management or logistical challenges between medicine depots and clinics caused 80% of stock outs.

However, the group noted that patients were turned away without any medication in only 20 percent of cases.

“Supply of medicine to clinics and hospitals is the basic pillar to any public health system and stock outs of medicines are indicative of a bigger problem related to the management and accountability in a health system,” said SSP’s Dr Karl Le Roux in the statement.

The findings show an improvement over the group’s previous survey in which about one in four facilities reported stock outs.

However, >40% of health facilities in seven districts reported at least one HIV and TB drug stock outs. These districts include the Eastern Cape’s Joe Gqabi and Alfred Nzo as well as the Free State’s Lejweleputswa and Fezile Dabi districts. – Health-e News

Do you know of a stock out?

Email the Department of Health

or Stop Stock Outs sms or What’s App 084.855.7867 or email
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