Tuesday 20 October

Right to Access Healthcare

SECTION27 complaint against State of Qatar to United Nations Special Rapporteur for Health

SECTION27 has sent a request to the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Health, reqesting him to investigate alleged violations of the right to health against the State of Qatar. In October 2010, “MR” was employed by Al Jazeera English as a Senior Editor and moved to Qatar. Following severe discrimination and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by both Al Jazeera and Qatar, MR was detained by Qatari authorities, and then unfairly dismissed by Al Jazeera and deported from Qatar in January 2011. The reason for his detention, dismissal and deportation was his HIV status. This is a direct violation of the right to health and cannot be condoned.

By Section27, ago

The United States Supreme Court upholds the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

SECTION27 applauds yesterday’s decision by the United States Supreme Court to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Act is President Barack Obama’s comprehensive health care reform legislation. It has the potential to enable the United States to achieve a goal that all countries, including South Africa, should strive toward: universal health care that is both high quality and affordable. In other words, quality health care for everyone.

The question for South Africans becomes: what lessons should South Africa take from this?

Read the entire statement by clicking “read more” below

By Section27, ago

Violent riots further affirm the need to protect the right to health at Lindela—yet Home Affairs idles.

12 June 2012

On 28 May 2012, a group of organisations wrote to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) to request that it urgently investigate the state of health and health care service provision at Lindela Repatriation Centre (Lindela).

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), SECTION27, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), and People against Suffering, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) requested a response from the SAHRC by 11 June 2012. To date, they have not received a response.

Recent reports of violent protests within Lindela add even further urgency and credence to the request and the need to ensure that health and health rights are protected. Therefore, the organisations are now making the request public.

Read the complete statement and the full request to the SAHRC by clicking “read more” below

By Section27, ago

Financial Crisis in the Eastern Cape Department of Health

May 30th 2012

Over the last two weeks SECTION27 together with our partners the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP), TAC, Africa Health Placements (AHP), Rural Rehabilitation South Africa (RuRESA), the Rural Doctors Association (RuDASA) and the South African Medical Association have received many reports from health care professionals and activists within the Eastern Cape who are concerned about the rapid decline in service delivery in the province.

These reports chronicle a variety of issues including non-payment of staff, drug stock-outs and shortages of basic medical supplies, and point to widespread systemic failures in the management and financing of services in the province. Although the crisis has been devastating to all types of state health facilities in the province, the impact of delayed or non-payment of critical healthcare workers and the difficulties in replacing such essential staff is even more acutely felt in rural areas, where healthcare teams are small and extremely fragile.

This briefing note for the public and the media outlines the tenuous financial position of the department, based on official internal Eastern Cape Department of Health documents that we have obtained.

Read the complete note by clicking “read more” below.

By Section27, ago

How we can improve HIV testing and counselling

On Friday 16 March 2012, health workers, counselling organisations, activists and a representative of the National Department of Health met in Hillbrow to discuss how to improve HIV testing and counselling. The meeting was hosted by the Southern African HIV Clinicians Society, the Treatment Action Campaign and SECTION27.

The participants have produced a joint statement on “How we can improve HIV testing and counselling”. The statement contains a number of recommendations regarding testing and counselling of children, the role of counsellors in the public health system and self-testing, amongst others.

For the full statement and a full list of presentations and documentation from the meeting click “read more” below

By Section27, ago

1,000 HIV activists take to JHB streets for US$2 billion needed to save millions of lives

US, UK & Australia have to maintain Global Fund support to avert crisis

JOHANNESBURG, 22 March – Today over 1,000 southern African activists from a coalition of organisations take to the streets of Johannesburg in a march to demand key international donors lead an urgent response to plug a US$2 billion treatment funding gap, so that countries across Africa can scale up their HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria programmes and avert countless unnecessary deaths.

NOTE EDITORS
– New science presented in 2011 (HPTN 052 study) shows that ART not only save lives, but also prevents new HIV infections. Putting people on treatment earlier therefore reduces their chances of infecting others by up to 96%. This heads off not only the spread of the HIV epidemic, but also a looming resurgence in TB and drug-resistant TB.
– Up to 70% of TB patients in southern Africa are also infected with HIV.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS CONTACT:
Kate Ribet, Communications Officer, MSF SA
kate.ribet@joburg.msf.org | +27 79 872 2950 | www.msf.org.za

Borrie la Grange, Head of Communications, MSF SA
borrie.lagrange@joburg.msf.org | +27 83 287 5294 | www.msf.org.za

By Section27, ago

SECTION27 SUBMISSION ON THE NATIONAL HEALTH AMENDMENT BILL, B24 – 2011 12 March 2012

Find the full submission by clicking “read more” below.

SECTION27 welcomes the opportunity to provide comments on the National Health Amendment Bill, 2011 (“Bill”) to the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Health (“Committee”). We are very encouraged by the move by the Department of Health (“Department”) in taking steps to establish a single, accountable and independent Office of Health Standards Compliance (“Office) that has wide and far reaching powers to ensure quality health care services in both the private and public health systems. We consider this to be an important part of the state’s responsibility in terms of section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (“Constitution”) to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of the right to have access to health care services.

By Section27, ago
WDA