Working collectively makes civil society stronger
The National Health Assembly, held at the University of the Western Cape from 24 – 26 June brought together organisations and individuals from all provinces in South Africa and beyond.…
RHAP Submission to the Health Market Inquiry
Our submission will focus primarily on how the absence of clear regulation and controls on the distribution and rationing of healthcare services in private sector sustains and could potentially exacerbates…
TAC Advocacy in Action: Village Clinic past, present and future
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), supported by SECTION27, RHAP and MSF have been involved in a campaign to ensure that villagers in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape get a clinic which ensures…
SECTION27 Comment on Draft Terms of Reference for Market Inquiry
SECTION27 has sent a submission to the Competition Commission on the draft Terms of Reference for the Market Inquiry into the Private Health care Sector . It was endorsed by the Black…
Mthatha Area Stock-Outs Update March 2013 – May 2013
SECTION27 and partner organisations the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have released a report detailing continued drug stock-outs in the…
Eastern Cape HIV drug stock outs: patients at risk
Thousands of people living with HIV and TB still risk death and drug-resistance in the Eastern Cape due to ongoing interruptions to their supply of life-saving drugs. A new report released five months after a coalition consisting of the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP), Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and SECTION27 first raised the alarm about the crisis at the Mthatha medical depot, paints a grim picture.
Fix The Provinces and Rural Health to Make the Health Budget Work for All Statement by SECTION27 and RHAP 16 May 2013
On 15 May 2013 the Minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, delivered his annual National Health budget and policy speech (here). The speech provides an opportunity for the Minister and his department to communicate progress they have made in delivering health services, the challenges they face and what they plan to do to advance the right to health.
Invitation to the Eastern Cape Health Consultation
SECTION27, RHAP, TAC, BEMF and RuDASA invite the public to two consultations to discuss the health crisis in the Eastern Cape in Mthatha on the 16th of May and East London on the 18th of May. Read more…
Report: Emergency Intervention at Mthatha Depot: The hidden cost of inaction
In early December, the Mthatha medical depot – serving more than 300 medical facilities in the North-eastern region of the Eastern Cape for medical supply needs – faced severe supply and delivery disruptions of life-saving HIV and tuberculosis [TB] treatment for over 100,000 patients. Stripped of 70% of its workforce due to suspensions in a labour dispute, the faltering management of the depot collapsed and critically compounded existing stock shortages at the depot, hospitals and clinics in the area. Orders had not been processed, supplies not received and, ultimately, drugs not dispensed to patients most in need. As a result, the danger of treatment interruption for HIV and TB patients was a perilous reality.
After Section27 and the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) received pleas for help from distressed health care workers on the ground and with the consent of the responsible health authorities, MSF and TAC started a coordinated response. MSF hired a temporary workforce and cleared the backlog of drug orders by coordinating stock reception, order processing and deliveries to affected facilities. TAC set up and maintained a drug stock-out hotline and monitoring network to help prioritise essential drug delivery to clinics. The Department of Health complemented the MSF/TAC intervention by sending three experienced pharmacists to assist at the Mthatha depot. Read the full report here
Press statement: Systematic Problems in Drug Supply Have to be Addressed Now to Avert Future Crisis
After responding to a drug distribution crisis at Mthatha medical depot between 7 December and 24 January, the medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières /Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is handing all activities back to Eastern Cape health authorities. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) will mobilize 25 volunteers to assist in the handover
IST reports on the state of the health system and the public’s right to know
More than a year after their finalisation and after many frustrated attempts by civil society organisations and the media to access them – including through the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2000 – SECTION27 and the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) have finally been leaked copies of all the provincial reports compiled by the Integrated Support Teams (ISTs). Up to this point, the only report we have received officially is a consolidated report available here. This report is important, but lacks the necessary detail to allow civil society to engage with different challenges in different provinces.
The IST reports on each province were commissioned by the former Minister of Health, Barbara Hogan, in response to the massive budgetary shortfalls that over-whelmed provincial departments of health (PDoHs) in the 2008/2009 financial year, which reached crisis levels when the Free State Department of Health issued a moratorium on the initiation of new patients onto antiretroviral treatment in November 2008. After civil society pressure, that moratorium was finally lifted in February 2009.
Reports of the Integrated Support Teams
The reports on this page are those of the Integrated Support Teams (ISTs) which have been provided to SECTION27 and the Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP). The IST reports were commissioned by the former Minister of Health, Barbara Hogan, in response to the massive budgetary shortfalls that over-whelmed provincial departments of health (PDoHs) in the 2008/2009 financial year, which reached crisis levels when the Free State Department of Health issued a moratorium on the initiation of new patients onto antiretroviral treatment from November 2008 to February 2009.
10 reports were commissioned in total, one for each provincial department of health and one for the National Department of Health – which we have not been able to access as of yet. In addition, a Consolidated Report was produced that pulled together findings from the individual department reports. These reports contain an honest, sobering assessment of the inadequate financial capacity of provincial departments of health that have led to the development of over R7.5 billion in provincial debt as of April 2009. The findings in these reports reveal fundamental failures in political and bureaucratic leadership, inappropriate financial management systems, inadequate monitoring and evaluation systems, and a failure to plan appropriately for human resources, amongst others.