Many private hospitals will be opening their doors to more patients but does that mean you’ll be stuck at the back of the queue? The United Kingdom’s universal healthcare system, known as the National Health Service (NHS), had a problem: By the early 2000s, a growing number of elderly patients were waiting up to three..
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How your medical bills may change under the National Health Insurance
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Kundiges in gesondheidsbedryf krap kop oor toename in hospitalisasie
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Kundiges in die gesondheidsbedryf het op die jaarlikse konferensie van die Hospitaalvereniging van Suid-Afrika (Hasa) in Kaapstad hewig van mekaar verskil oor wat die redes vir ‘n skerp toename in die koste van mediese skemas is. Matthew Prior, hoof van gesondheidsbeleid van Life Healtcare, sê ’n toename in benutting van gesondheidsdienste word die afgelope jare..
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#HASA2017: NHI needs to start delivering now
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South Africa can’t wait for the final National Health Insurance (NHI) system in 2026 to start delivering on universal health coverage, but needs to start implementing projects and programmes that will make a real difference in people’s lives now. And this can’t be done without cooperation between the public and private health sectors. This was..
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The maddening state of Gauteng’s psychiatric facilities
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A massive shortages of hospital beds for psychiatric patients in Gauteng is compromising patient care. Gauteng is short of about 2700 psychiatric beds which means that psychiatric patients have to be admitted to general wards where there is no security, thus posing a threat both to themselves and others. This was revealed recently by Gauteng..
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Nearly 2 million will lose private healthcare if tax reform happens
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The government’s plan to ditch medical aid tax credits will have a disastrous effect on already cash-strapped South Africans and force nearly 2 million people onto the over-stretched state health system. If the tax credit is removed, 22% of medical aid users will not be able to afford cover, Stellenbosch economics consultancy Econex warned in..
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Doctors Sound Alarm That SA Mental Healthcare Is Collapsing
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While almost all the previous Life Esidimeni psychiatric patients have been transferred from the NGOs in Gauteng back into hospitals, a group of doctors have warned that the psychiatric structure in South Africa is collapsing. Reports reveal that in some mental health hospitals there are no psychiatrists, and none of the provinces have organised community-based..
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Syndicates and devious health professionals may target National Health Insurance
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Criminal networks are targeting your medical aid rands but could you be part of the problem too? Criminal syndicates and unscrupulous doctors may be defrauding the private health sector of millions as experts warn that medical schemes may reach a breaking point. “The health care sector is being targeted by criminal syndicates and even devious..
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NHI financing model questioned by FMF
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The latest iteration of the National Health Insurance (NHI) policy paper is no closer to defining how much the scheme will cost and where the money will come from to pay for it. Meanwhile, SA risks running out of tax payers to finance its social security commitments, said Dr Johann Serfontein, senior healthcare consultant with..
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Anger over medicines supply scheme
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It is crucial for the Rev Isaac Harley to take his medication daily – it’s a matter of life and death really. As a diabetic with a hypertensive comorbidity, he depends on his tablets and insulin to maintain his insulin levels and to manage his high blood pressure. But it’s been one problem after the..
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Africa gets generic version of most effective HIV drug
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NAIROBI – The generic version of the most advanced drug against HIV has been introduced in Kenya, a first in Africa where more than 25m have the disease, the NGO Unitaid said. The drug, Dolutegravir (DTG) is the anti-retroviral drug of choice for those living with HIV in developed countries, but its high price has..
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