The Gauteng health department should be placed under Treasury administration. Chronic medicine shortages have left clinic patients rationing medication or buying it themselves. The editorial says the province can no longer guarantee even basic care. Patients told to split pills Recently, chronic medicine shortages at Gauteng clinics have forced some patients to buy medicines privately or ration their pills. Mamelodi…
Category: News
Daily news on medical schemes, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, policy and regulation.
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Gap Cover Undermines Scheme Cost Controls
Gap cover, medical schemes and primary healthcare plans are shifting costs between one another, undermining efforts to contain healthcare spending, actuaries have warned. Four Medscheme actuaries presented the findings at the Actuarial Society of South Africa convention in Cape Town. PMBs squeeze other benefits According to senior actuarial analyst Elizabeth Greyling, prescribed minimum benefits (PMBs) accounted for 70% of healthcare…
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Healthcare Worker Shortages Demand Bolder Leadership
South Africa’s healthcare worker shortages are arguably the country’s biggest healthcare story, yet government leaders have failed to tackle them, according to an editorial. It accompanies an investigation by journalist Sue Segar into unemployed doctors who protested for jobs in KwaZulu-Natal earlier this year. Unemployed doctors amid staff shortages According to the editorial, many of the protesting doctors are committed…
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Clicks Growth Strategy Targets GLP-1 Medicines, Oncology
The Clicks growth strategy is moving the retailer beyond its pharmacy roots, with CEO Bertina Engelbrecht targeting GLP-1 medicines, specialist healthcare and medical consumables. Clicks has raised its pharmacy market share to 24.7% and operates 835 pharmacies and 225 clinics. GLP-1 medicines the biggest near-term opportunity Engelbrecht sees GLP-1 medicines as the biggest short-term opportunity. These drugs treat diabetes and…
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ARV Tender Suffers a Blow as High Court Sets Aside Contracts
The High Court in Pretoria has declared the main contracts in the Health Department’s R15.5 billion ARV tender unconstitutional and invalid. The court set aside two contracts for monthly and three-monthly packs of tenofovir, lamivudine and dolutegravir (TLD), worth a combined R12.63 billion. TLD is the triple combination pill taken by most of South Africa’s HIV-positive patients. According to Treasury,…