In October 2007 I convened a Private Sector Indaba to discuss my concerns about the unaffordable high costs in the private healthcare sector. At this Indaba everyone agreed that all was not well in the private health sector and that government would indeed have to take regulatory measures to ensure that the sector was sustainable....
Download PDF

HIV/AIDS peer education provides an important component of workplace responses to HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Wits Business School recognises that students and alumni face many challenges that impact on their ability to manage effectively in the workplace. Professor Dickinson’s report “Talking About AIDS – a Study of Informal Activities Undertaken by Workplace HIV/AIDS Peer Educators in a South African Company” is one of several reports dealing with the challenges students and alumni face in business.
Download PDF

Business in South Africa – like their counterparts on the continent - face many challenges in standing up to the needs of a global business environment; one of these being the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
Download PDF

The Nelson Mandela Foundation commissioned the first national, household sero-prevalence survey of HIV/AIDS in 2002. That study had significant impact nationally, in the sub-region and internationally. The report received widespread international attention, has been used to build the capacity of other Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries in implementing similar studies, and has impacted on policy, strategy and practice in the area of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Statistics South Africa currently uses the 2002 household survey to estimate the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS situation in the country.
Download PDF

The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund identified the need for a national HIV/AIDS survey after realising that one of the major constraints we face in dealing with the epidemic is our lack of information in a changing environment.
Download PDF

South Africa faces the most intricate human resource challenges characteristic of health systems in many other countries. Ensuring an adequate human resource pool for the staffing of especially the public health sector is a major task that is complicated by many global and disease burden challenges. In addition to the legislative and constitutional mandate to provide good quality health services to the nation, the 2001 National Human Resource Strategy provides the context for developing a human resource plan.
Download PDF

The Minister of Health officially releases the report of the investigation into the outbreak of Klebsiella bacteria in the neonatal nursery at Mahatma Ghandi Hospital. The report highlights a number of factors that might have contributed to this outbreak. They range from structural design of the facility, human behaviour and the workload that the hospital is faced with.
Download PDF

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, a guiding document in our struggle to create a better life for all our citizens. As we observe this historic moment, our movement through the January 08 statement of the African National Congress has highlighted some of the key areas we have to focus on this year within the social sector cluster of government to ensure that we indeed realise one of the critical goals of the Freedom Charter – that there shall be houses, security and comfort.
Download PDF

In October 2004, the National Department of Health once again in partnership with the provincial departments of health conducted the annual antenatal survey. The information gathered is very valuable and assists in tracking HIV and syphilis trends. Although the survey is conducted among pregnant women, it provides important information, which is an indicator of what is happening in the general South African population.
Download PDF