Mhlaba Memela: The Times

PATIENTS at Inkosi Albert Luthuli Hospital in Durban were left unattended for up to seven hours yesterday when nurses went on strike to protest against corruption.The nurses refused to go back to work until health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo accepted their memorandum.

SAPA-AFP

ONE in three adults suffers from high blood pressure, a key cause of strokes and heart disease, according to World Health Organisation figures released yesterday.Canada and the US have the fewest patients, at less than 20 percent of adults, but in poorer countries, the estimated figure is closer to 50 percent, the UN body said.

BHF Press Release:

Judgement handed down in favour of the Board of Health Care Funders of Southern Africa (BHF) in a copyright infringement case against Discovery Health Medical Scheme, Discovery Health Administrators and the Council for Medical Schemes. Click here

Nivashni Nair: The Times

NATIONAL Health Insurance, crime and a shortage of maths and science graduates are pushing graduate professionals to consider emigration. The quarterly PPS Graduate Professionals Confidence Index, which tracks confidence levels of about 6 000 graduate professionals, found that the number of professionals who are confident of remaining in the country has dropped from 84 percent to 78 percent.PPS head of group marketing and stakeholder relations, Gerhard Joubert, said that though a confidence level of 78 percent was still very positive, it was of concern that this figure had declined.

Thando Mgaga: The Times

THE results of KwaZulu-Natal's dire shortage of ambulances can be seen in cemeteries around the province, according to health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo. Addressing the KZN legislature's health portfolio committee meeting yesterday, Dhlomo said the shortage of ambulances and doctors' mistakes cost lives.He said that the some of the ambulances allocated to the province had been parked unused since 2010.

SAPA

THE Democratic Alliance has said that it has received complaints of medicine shortages in Gauteng hospitals and clinics. This was despite a pledge by Gauteng Health MEC Ntombi Mekgwe that problems at a medical depot were being rectified, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Jack Bloom said.Helen Joseph Hospital had run out of several medicines, including peritoneal dialysis dialysate, used by patients with chronic renal failure.

Simon Williamsonin: The Times

JOHANNESBURG mayor Parks Tau said yesterday that Brazil was the healthcare model South Africa aimed to emulate. Tau was speaking at the annual GCB Health Conference, which aims to expand relationships between business and public healthcare service providers. Tau spoke about the challenges facing Johannesburg and solutions the city aimed to roll out.

Tamar Kahn: Business Day

SPIRALLING debt at Netcare's UK operations will not have a damaging impact on its South African operations.Chief executive Richard Friedland said Netcare was "seeking a solution" to the UK situation but this would be a process and would not happen instantly. He said Netcare would not do anything that would affect South African operations or its shareholders.

BHF Press Release:

Decision on the application for leave to appeal the Regulation 8 matter judgement of November 2011. Click here

Londiwe Buthelezi: Business Report, and
Tamar Kahn: Business Day

DEMAND for hospital services is on the increase and has prompted Life Healthcare to procure additional beds in its hospitals.It said it would add additional beds through brownfield expansion and mental healthcare facilities. An additional 141 beds are projected to be commissioned in the second six months of the group's financial year.

Laura du Preez: Personal Finance

THE Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) has recommended to government that medical scheme members be entitled to continue to use supplementary products such as gap cover until there is sufficient reform of the private sector to ensure schemes are affordable and that the prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs) do discriminate against certain members. The BHF urged the Department of Health and the National Treasury to introduce mandatory medical scheme cover, review the PMBs and introduce price regulation.

Xolile Bhengu: The Financial Mail

THE five-year pilot phase of the National Health Insurance (NHI) may be limited to rural and peri-urban areas, but it has unnerved the predominantly urban private medical aid scheme industry.Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has repeatedly said he has no intention of harming the private medical scheme industry, but he has not fleshed out what role medical aid schemes can, or will, play under the full NHI environment envisaged in 14 years' time.

Anso Thom: Health-e News Service

THE GLOBAL Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria estimates that more than $1.6 billion (R12.7bn) in additional funding will be available in the next two years.A statement said the new forecast was a result of "strategic decisions made by the board, freeing up funds that can be invested in countries where there is the most pressing demand".

Alf James: The Star

THE International Council of Nurses (ICN) and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) recently launched the Nursing Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Prevention and Wellness Project in the North West Province of South Africa.The NCD project, generously sup-ported by Pfizer, aims to assist nurses working within the public health sector to focus on their health and wellness and to support those in the community who are at risk of developing or have been diagnosed with NCDs.

Alf James: The Star

THE International Council of Nurses (ICN), which is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide, commemorates International Nurses' Day each year with the production and distribution of the International Nurses' Day (IND) Kit.The IND Kit 2012 contains educational and public information materials linked to the IND theme for 2012, which is "Closing the Gap: From Evidence to Action", for use by nurses everywhere.

Alf James: The Star

THE Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa joins the world in celebrating International Nurses Day on May 12. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) in 1974 proclaimed 12 May International Nurses Day (IND) in celebration of the birth of Florence Nightingale - the creator of contemporary nursing.

Theresa Taylor: The Star

JOHANNESBURG'S Emergency Management Services (EMS) staff claim they are forced to use expired medicines to treat patients, and they lack equipment ranging from blankets to life-saving defibrillators.They say they are trying to save lives without the supplies they desperately need.

Martin de Sa'Pinto: Reuters

SWISS drug maker Roche has ended efforts to develop a heart disease drug which some industry analysts had estimated could have achieved $10bn in annual sales, after poor results from a late-stage trial.Roche said the drug trial's independent data and safety monitoring board recommended stopping it due to a lack of meaningful efficacy.

Piet Rampedi: The Sunday Independent

SIX MONTHS after President Jacob Zuma placed Limpopo under administration, the cash-strapped province faces a potential health crisis after over-stocked medicines worth millions of rands expired, while some were allegedly looted or sold by corrupt officials.Some of the medicines for which the provincial health department paid R341million last year were awaiting disposal after expiring two months ago.