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Long Form

Long Form Journalism by the Bhekisisa Team

SA’s moonlight sonata: The illegal cash cow draining specialist care at state hospitals

Specialist doctors at many state facilities aren’t showing up to work despite earning millions of rands a year in taxpayer money. The consequences for patient health can be devastating but not everyone agrees on the solutions.
What happens when anesthesia works as well as it should?

This is what it’s like waking up during surgery

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General anaesthetic is supposed to make surgery painless. Now there’s evidence that one person in 20 may be awake when doctors think they’re under.
During the Ebola outbreak hospitals were seen as dumping grounds for the dying

Africa’s oldest psychiatric hospital a stark reminder of war and a forgotten people

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After Sierra Leone’s civil war, money poured in for mental health services. But a decade later, there's little left to help Ebola’s victims.
Lifestyle: Tim Noakes’s book recommends that carbs should be limited to between 25g and 50g a day.

Binge-beating Banting: Why Tim’s take is hard to stomach

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Can the banting diet cure binge-eating disorder? Mia Malan follows one person's journey.

What ChatGPT won’t tell you about Tlaleng Mofokeng

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Get to know sexual and reproductive rights activist and doctor Tlaleng Mofokeng with our reporter Sean Christie.
Being bilingual is better for your brain. Now

Speak more than one language? This is what it does to your brain.

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Speaking more than one language could lead to better tests scores and even being a more empathetic person.
Charity Petelo has been looking after her son since his diagnoses with schizophrenia 14 years ago.

‘The people told me they are coming to take me away tonight’

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Where traditional beliefs are more real than textbooks, treating mental illness is a balancing act for sangomas and medical doctors alike.

Why these health workers are spending their lives in South Africa’s poorest villages

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Rural hospitals and clinics struggle to attract or retain senior healthcare professionals. Health workers who grew up in rural towns can plug the gap as they are more likely to work at facilities in far-flung places than their urban counterparts.

‘Retirement will come the day I’m buried’: Côte d’Ivoire grandmothers are left holding the...

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For grandmothers across Côte d’Ivoire, climate change has had unexpected consequences. Once abundant with crop life, sustenance farming has become an unpredictable nightmare in the country’s villages. Young people of working age are now leaving villages in droves — without their children.
In 2013 the psychology’s bible

When the sorrow doesn’t end: Could chronic grief be a medical condition?

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The pain of bereavement is supposed to ease with time. When it doesn't, psychiatrists call it 'complicated grief' and it can be treated.
Making waves: Women on Web offers an online portal that dispatches an abortion pill to people across the world.

‘I told them I had a miscarriage. But the nurses knew what had really...

Go inside the international network of women willing to break the law to give people access to termination of pregnancy services.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize

Meet Zweli Mkhize, the man behind SA’s #COVID-19 response

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Can the health minister fix our health system and what will it take? Here’s what Mkhize’s character, views and his past experience as a doctor tell us.
Nongezile Sinkala walked 7km across hilly terrain and thick bush to get to the nearest taxi rank to take her sick grandson to the hospital.

‘God make us strong, I beg you, keep Luphumlo alive’

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Mia Malan describes the arduous trek an Eastern Cape woman had to undertake to get medical attention for her sick grandson.
Four-month-old Samson Salo receives a dose of vitamin A at the Madamani Dispensary during Malezi Bora.

This costs just cents and could prevent half-a-million children from going blind

The substance is critical in pregnancy and in the development of children; a lack of it has dire consequences.
Some lower functioning Care Haven Psychiatric Centre residents are guided through drawing and reading with a staff member as part of a daily programme to keep them active

The promise and peril of ditching South Africa’s psychiatric hospitals

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Community mental health care can be better for patients and health systems if it's done right. Find out how one organisation is making it work.

#SayHerName: The faces of South Africa’s femicide epidemic

This is an ode to the women whose names made it into news outlets between 2018 and 2020. It’s also a tribute to those who didn’t – the faceless, nameless women whose stories will remain untold. This project is a collaboration among Bhekisisa, Media Hack and the Canon Collins Trust.