This advocacy video highlights the role of family practice in moving towards universal health coverage and demonstrates the 13 key elements of the family practice approach. It is directed at regional decision-makers and directors in the field of service delivery, care providers and communities and aims to build awareness on the family practice approach as a model for integrated health care service delivery.  The video includes messages from senior WHO experts about the implementation of family practice in the Eastern Mediterranean Region…..more

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The role of community health workers in the South African public healthcare system has been unclear and controversial. How many do we need? What exactly should their role be? Who should employ them? What should they be paid? Is there good evidence to inform policy? Sasha Stevenson of SECTION27 lead Spotlight’s in-depth investigation into these pressing questions.

The structure of our health system and the nature of our healthcare workforce are unsuited to the goals that we have set ourselves: universal health coverage; an ‘end to AIDS’; and the reduction in non-communicable diseases through preventative and health promotion services. These goals can’t be reached in a hospital-centric health system with unsupervised, NGO-employed and underpaid community health workers (CHWs) serving as the only community-based services in the absence of capacitated and reliable clinic and hospital outreach programmes.

For some time, the national and provincial departments of health have been discussing and partly implementing a CHW programme. There have been multiple policy documents and there has been some action from provincial departments but we remain a long way from establishing a standardised CHW programme, let alone one that is capable of meeting the objectives of the health system, the National Strategic Plan (NSP), and the population…..more

2: Why do we need CHWs?
3: History of CHWs in South Africa
4: What should CHWs do?
5: How many CHWs do we need?
6: How should CHWs be employed?
7: How much will the CHW programme cost?

www.fundsforngos.org – The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is currently seeking applications for Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa Programme (TDDAP), a five-year flagship programme for DFID’s Africa…  

Areas of interest:

To ensure that there is reduced impact of deadly diseases on the lives of people of Africa, the programme will be structured around the following areas of work:

1. Working with regional and international health institutions to help them clarify their mandates and roles, develop and implement a robust set of international health policies and programmes, and establish adequate capacity for preventing and responding to health emergencies.

2. Supporting our partner countries to make sure that their national health systems are resilient, responsive, accountable and on-track to meet the standards set out in the International Health Regulations.

3. Ensuring that governments and regional health institutions are held to account for the prevention of health emergencies, delivery of quality health services and proper management of health budgets.

4. Gathering accurate data and evidence to inform responses to infectious diseases by African governments and international partners.

5. Contributing to the establishment of rapid response standing capacity in Africa able to provide surge response to tackle disease outbreaks.

There is a new opportunity for Africa-based investigators to apply for Innovation Seed Grants up to $100,000 for “1) solutions and strategies to reduce maternal, neonatal and child deaths in Africa, [or] 2) creative communication approaches to inspire African governments to fund research and development.”

A fuller description is online at http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/grand-challenges-africa-innovation-seed-grants-0

These grants will go to “innovators resident in Africa with any level of experience, working in any discipline in colleges, universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-governmental and non-profit organizations.” The goal is to find local solutions to Africa’s pressing challenges and help the continent achieve the SDGs.

Submissions are due 1 pm on February 17, 2017 – effectively Thursday, Feb 16, for applications from Africa. (ORA deadline, if JHU is a sub or partner on a submission, will be Thursday, Feb 9).

This partner website for AESA in Africa links to registration info and instructions for prospective applicants and their institutions:

http://aasciences.ac.ke/aesa/programmes/grand-challenges-africa/innovation-seed-grant-round-1/  

Registering may be complicated, especially for first-time applicants and institutions, so please urge your partners and colleagues to begin this process early even if they have not decided whether to apply.

Please find here the Global Plan of Action: Health Systems Address Violence against Women and Girls (2016) and below, a list of new WHO resources on violence against women. Thank you for your attention. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/251664/1/WHO-RHR-16.13-eng.pdf?ua=1

Research

WHO ethical and safety recommendations for intervention research on Violence Against Women (VAW) (2016) The new WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Intervention Research on Violence Against Women (VAW) ?developed in conjunction with global experts on tthe topic – give crucial guidance on how best to address questions of ethics and safety to researchers working on violence against women. The new recommendations reflect the ethical concerns on VAW research, expressed in numerous articles and publications, that have come to light since WHO published Putting Women First: Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence Against Women in 2001. As the evidence base on the magnitude, context, and consequences of VAW has grown, research efforts and attention have begun to focus on decreasing the knowledge gap on effective responses through intervention research. There is therefore a need to consider ethical and safety questions unique to this context. http://who.int/entity/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/intervention-research-vaw/en/index.html

Advocacy tools:

– A short  animation film on strengthening the health system response to violence against women avaible in English, Spanish, and French. This animation highlights how the health system can play a role in responding to women who have experienced violence against women.

English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_GHITvTmI

French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuizNPowuMY

Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAlY-1KI6ts

– Infographics including guidance for a first-line response from health care providers (LIVES) http://who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/VAW_infographics/en/

Global policy:
–  A popular version of the global plan of action Global Plan of Action: Health Systems Address Violence against Women and Girls (2016)

This call to action is a popular version of the violence against women and girls section of the Global plan of action to strengthen the role of the health system to address  violence, in particular against women and girls and against children (attached).  http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/251664/1/WHO-RHR-16.13-eng.pdf?ua=1

Ados V. May, MPA | IBP Initiative Secretariat | Senior Technical Advisor
1299 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 550 | Washington, DC 20004 | www.ibpinitiative.org
o: +1 202 808 3846 | m: +1 202 999 8816 | email: ados.may@phi.org | Skype: adosmay

HIFA profile: Ados May is a Senior Technical Advisor at the IBP Initiative in the United States of America. ados.may AT phi.org

Hospitals and clinics in the SA government’s flagship National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot programme are failing to improve any faster than those in the rest of the country, reports Business Day. Despite repeat inspections and R145m spent, of 1,427 facilities inspected in the four years to March, just 89 of them scored a pass mark of 70% or more….more

See the Shanghai Declaration on Promoting Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the link is here: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/shanghai-declaration.pdf?ua=1

What is new in this Declaration is the focus on “health literacy” – a term which encompasses the use of information and knowledge in healthcare, and particularly the application of health information and knowledge in education at all levels.  

A clear set of commitments is set out, including the following:

“We commit to:

• recognize health literacy as a critical determinant of health and invest in its development;”
• develop, implement and monitor intersectoral national and local strategies for strengthening health literacy in all populations and in all educational settings;”
• increase citizens’ control of their own health and its determinants, through harnessing the potential of digital technology;”
• ensure that consumer environments support healthy choices through pricing policies, transparent information and clear labelling.”

Most travelers to Africa know to protect themselves from malaria. But malaria is far from the only mosquito-borne disease in Africa. Recent studies have revealed that dengue, a disease that is well recognized in Asia and the Americas, may be commonly misdiagnosed as malaria in Africa. So if you’re traveling to Africa, in addition to taking anti-malarial medications you should also take steps to avoid dengue…..more

Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) has a Dengue Prevention animation in multiple languages for use here:

http://sawbo-animations.org/video.php?video=//www.youtube.com/embed/31AspqabKbs

Office of Health Standards Compliance still not up to scratch after 5 years: DA.

DA spokesman on health matters Dr Wilmot James said on Sunday he had written to the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health‚ Mary Ann Dunjwa‚ to request that Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the Acting CEO of the OHSC‚ Bafana Msibi‚ come and explain to Parliament why it (OHSC) is incapable of measuring the quality of maternal (or any other health care) matter after five years since its establishment.

James said that a “breathtaking admission” to the Sunday Times‚ Motsoaledi had stated that the OHSC was‚ after five years‚ still “on a learning curve”‚ unable to design a robust health assessment model and therefore in no position to exercise oversight.

Asked if it took a simple organisation like the OHSC five years to figure out its job‚ how long would it take to establish National Health Insurance (NHI)‚ Motsoaledi‚ “with supreme arrogance”‚ had replied: “The problem with you people is that you are so impatient. This is grossly unfair. It shows a hatred for NHI.” more

This week, a panel of experts released its recommendations for a proposed minimum wage of R3 500 per month. In its report, the panel noted that care workers were by far the most likely to earn significantly below this threshold with wages so low that workers were in effect “subsidising the cost of these services through low-wage or no-wage work”.

This is hardly news to many of the country’s community health workers who continue to battle for regularised pay and benefits.

Gauteng community health workers recently marched to the department of health. The march was prompted by, in part, the department’s decision this year to summarily change the conditions of employment. These workers, who were paid directly by the department until March 2016, have been forced into contracts with Smart Purse, an outsourced payment management system. Essentially outsourced workers, they are not eligible for benefits such as paid maternity leave, state-subsidised pension payments and a myriad of other benefits afforded to government employees…..more and more

Sky-high medical negligence claims are forcing obstetricians out of private practice – so much so that the gynaecological society has warned that there won’t be any left in the private sector by 2020.  Medical insurance premiums are rising steeply, making it impossible for many doctors to stay in business. This year private-practice obstetricians had to pay R650000 in medical insurance premiums and this is expected to hit R850000 next year, forcing more of them to stop delivering babies and work only in gynaecology.

The SA Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists suggests that about 50 obstetricians quit helping women give birth this year, leaving about 450 obstetricians in the private sector. They need to charge a minimum of R13000 a delivery to cover their costs, including rent and staff, but medical aids pay them less than this. About R5000 of the fee is to cover medical insurance…..more

At Discovery, we are deeply patriotic and believe our beautiful country is deserving of our best efforts to build it. It is my view, however, that we underrate SA and ignore its sizeable potential. Because of this, we limit our future and affect our ability to lift our country for the benefit of all South Africans. We think being negative about SA is an appropriate, conservative and sophisticated response. But it is not. My thinking is neither naive nor emotional — it is grounded in science. Evolutionary biology teaches us that we evolved on the savannahs over millions of years in conditions that were extremely challenging. Life expectancy was about 30 years and infant mortality was high, with one in three babies dying. We faced scarcity and physical threats, necessitating seeking out negative indicators in order to survive because these signals presented imminent harm. As such, we are deeply coded. Our predecessors who failed to read those cues faced the ultimate risk: death. Today, the opposite is true. The challenges we face are not about scarcity and physical threats, but about abundance, and threats of systemic failure…..more

The government’s National Health Insurance (NHI) proposals have dominated the headlines in recent months. The Free Market Foundation’s health policy unit too, has focused on that misdirected and flawed policy. But the NHI is not the only problem in our national health regime. The National Health Act (61 of 2003) is also holding SA back in terms of medical and healthcare development. The Good Law Project’s Principles of Good Law report, published in 2015, contained an introduction to the metalegal concept of “the rule of law”. In brief, the rule of law means that objectively ascertainable principles of law govern society, rather than the arbitrary discretion or whims of politicians and bureaucrats. This is why “the rule of law” is distinguished from “the rule of man”, which finds its expression in dictatorship or absolute monarchy…..more

Professional management in the public health sector is a key factor if the implementation of a National Health Insurance (NHI) is to stand any chance of success. Ailing state facilities can be turned around by proper management, as shown by the shining example of Frere Hospital in the Eastern Cape, where a new hospital manager turned a shambolic institution into something that resembles the Department of Health’s proposed ideal clinic model. But what if it is the provincial department that is incompetent? The negative effect of poor management is then spread over a much larger area…..more

Education and healthcare are the two issues in which the state has to provide the resources, writes Aaron Motsoaledi.  The Department of Health will invest R17bn over the next three years into upgrading public clinics to “workable” levels, in line with a broader preparation for introducing the National Health Insurance (NHI) system. The government has concluded an investigation into the amount required to upgrade the clinics into facilities capable of delivering services to their communities. This figure is insufficient for high-level services, but would hopefully provide key medication and the infrastructure medical staff demand. NHI and the #FeesMustFall campaigns are the same side of the coin, rather than diametrically opposed initiatives…..more

The DA is expected to unveil its alternative vision for universal healthcare on Wednesday, promising a better deal for patients in half the time of National Health Insurance (NHI) and at no extra cost to the fiscus. It proposes scrapping medical aid tax credits, which are valued at R17.4bn for the current fiscal year, and using the resources to improve public healthcare and subsidise medical scheme membership. The government promised to deliver NHI within 14 years when it published its green paper in August 2011, but progress has been slow despite Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s drive to get it going. The plan has also been criticised as unaffordable, and based on unrealistic expectations of economic growth….more

The public health system is in crisis, and its flagship programme does not offer a better deal for patients.  Hospitals and clinics in the government’s flagship National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot programme are failing to improve any faster than those in the rest of the country, according to inspection records obtained from the Office of Health Standards Compliance. The records reveal a public health system in crisis. Among the 1,427 facilities inspected in the four years to March, just 89 of them scored a pass mark of 70% or more. Facilities fell short on matters ranging from the availability of medicines to infection control…..more

See list here

Patients will soon be able to report negligence‚ long queues and shoddy hospital and clinic facilities to the health police.

The office of health safety compliance will launch its complaints management call centre on Monday to record and investigate complaints properly.

Through this centre, the watchdog body would be able to protect and promote the health and safety of health service users and vulnerable people exercising their right to healthcare, said spokesman Ricardo Mahlakanya.

He said a team would be ensure calls were not missed…..more