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[ICYMI] More than 1.5-million workers to return to work from 1 May
That includes legal and accounting services, manufacturing, and retail, minister of trade and industry Ebrahim Patel explained. Watch the full briefing below.
Data-driven TB: Using the numbers to find SA’s missing patients
How community health workers and data can help South Africa get more TB patients on treatment.
[ICYMI] Higher Education Minister on how South Africans are coping with COVID-19 lockdown
The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, will release the outcome of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) second part of the public perception survey on the impact of the coronavirus on South Africans.
Health Beat #20 | Shades of Life Esidimeni: How the Gauteng government makes up...
Social development budgets in Gauteng have been steadily declining, from R2.13-billion in 2022/2023 to R1.9-billion this year. Non-profit organisations say funding they’ve relied on for years is halted without adequate explanation, leaving some of them with no option but to close, and residents with no alternative care.
Health Beat #23 | What the NHI could be — if run well
Our Health Beat team takes you on a tour of some Gauteng hospital success stories — from an NHI-like project, the Chiawelo Community Practice in Soweto, to the lifesaving cardiothoracic surgery unit at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
Health Beat #21: Eight years later — what does psychiatric care look like after...
Has psychiatric care in our government health system improved eight years after Life Esidimeni during which 141 mental health patients died because of negligence? Health Beat visits a community mental health organisation, talks to Section27, the Gauteng government and a counselling organisation, Heal SA, to find out.
The power of media: How this drug rehab centre got back its subsidy
Four days after our TV show, Health Beat, was broadcast on eNCA — the Freedom Recovery Centre, which helps drug users sober up, got confirmation from the Gauteng government that they would receive the subsidy they had been waiting for for months. Without it, they would have had to close their doors.
[WATCH] This centre is a home to special needs kids — but it ends...
The Boikanyo Mentally and Disabled Children Centre in Temba in northern Gauteng is home to kids with cerebral palsy, autism and Down’s syndrome. But when they turn 18, many have nowhere to go.
Health Beat #25 | Will SA’s new climate change laws save our beaches —...
The Health Beat team visits a community suffering the health effects of living near mine waste and finds out whether our new Climate Change Act will make a difference to those affected by air pollution.
Health Beat #24 | Why does SA treat drug addiction as a criminal, rather...
Health Beat examines South Africa’s drug policy and finds out why policing and health are operating in silos, instead of following our National Drug Master Plan.
Health Beat #26 | Why teens self-harm — and how to help them stop
It’s a shocking reality: most children in our country feel they need mental health support — that’s according to Unicef. Health Beat finds that depression and anxiety, especially in teens, are playing out in complex ways like self-harm.
[WATCH] How this Soweto project rolls out its own NHI
For the past decade, the Chiawelo Community Practice (CCP) in Soweto has tested how primary healthcare that starts within communities through things like exercise...
[WATCH] A change of heart: Why this patient’s opinion of state hospitals changed after...
Will patients be able to get quality healthcare from public hospitals once the National Health Insurance is in place — whether for lifesaving operations like heart surgery or routine check-ups for things like blood pressure or diabetes? Bhekisisa’s Health Beat team talks to a patient and his doctor at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital about their experiences — and what state hospitals can offer if run well.
[WATCH] How a youth centre is fighting Westbury’s drugs and gangs
In Westbury, Johannesburg, drugs and gangs overshadow daily life, trapping new generations in addiction and crime. While police crackdowns bring short-lived relief, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime tells Health Beat that affordable rehabilitation and medical treatment for drug dependents are better investments.
[WATCH] How Soweto is fighting ill health from gold mine dumps
In Snake Park, Soweto, Thokozile Mntambo and local volunteers are researching the health impacts of a massive gold mine dump looming over their community. Decades of mining on the Witwatersrand left behind toxic waste that residents say leads to illnesses and birth defects.
[WATCH] How methadone and clean needles could turn around SA’s drug crisis
With a daily dose of medically supervised methadone, some drug dependents in the City of Tshwane are giving up their needles and heroin. Although the health department will launch pilot programmes at two clinics this year, most public clinics don’t offer methadone, and private medical aids won’t cover it. Could expanding this project save lives and cut the cost of healthcare?