A child is back in a KwaZulu-Natal hospital after being discharged with a gaping bleeding wound‚ forcing his aunt to turn to Twitter to demand help. But the health department disputes the version of events. The 8-year-old boy was discharged from Madadeni hospital in Newcastle on Monday with an open wound‚ following an appendix operation…
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Anger as KZN hospital sends child home with gaping wound
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Probe exonerates Livingstone Hospital in death and maggots row
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Livingstone Hospital investigations have found that nobody can be held liable for two shocking incidents in which a patient fell to his death from the fifth floor and maggots hatched in the wound of another. But the family of Zakes Mbeki, 29, who fell from the fifth story of the hospital early on Christmas morning,..
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The maddening state of Gauteng’s psychiatric facilities
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A massive shortages of hospital beds for psychiatric patients in Gauteng is compromising patient care. Gauteng is short of about 2700 psychiatric beds which means that psychiatric patients have to be admitted to general wards where there is no security, thus posing a threat both to themselves and others. This was revealed recently by Gauteng..
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Nearly 2 million will lose private healthcare if tax reform happens
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The government’s plan to ditch medical aid tax credits will have a disastrous effect on already cash-strapped South Africans and force nearly 2 million people onto the over-stretched state health system. If the tax credit is removed, 22% of medical aid users will not be able to afford cover, Stellenbosch economics consultancy Econex warned in..
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Tygerberg Hospital performs its first deep brain stimulation
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A man with tardive dystonia became the first adult to undergo deep brain stimulation (DBS) at a Western Cape state hospital. His condition drastically improved following the procedure at Tygerberg. Until now it had only been performed on a few children at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital. The dystonia was a side effect of an..
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Robot-aided surgery now available in Eastern Cape Province
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The first robot-assisted surgeries to treat prostate cancer in the Eastern Cape were performed by Netcare Greenacres urologists Dr Hannes Brummer and Dr Johan Coetzee this week following the installation of the Da Vinci Si robotic surgical system at the hospital. Similar robotic systems have been installed at Netcare hospitals in Cape Town, Johannesburg and..
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Kind in Wes-Kaap dood aan witseerkeel
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’n 10-jarige meisie van die Nomzamo-township naby die Strand is dood en drie familielede is besmet met die hoogs aansteeklike bakteriële siekte witseerkeel, het die Wes-Kaapse gesondheidsdepartement Maandag bevestig. Die meisie het op 3 Augustus positief getoets vir die siekte en is die volgende dag dood “weens die erns van die siekte”, sê Mark van..
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Could you have hepatitis and not know it?
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According to the World Health Organisation, Africa has one of the highest hepatitis infection rates in the world. Sadly, many people are unaware they have it. Hepatitis affects 60 million people in Africa. Worldwide, an estimated 325 million people are living with chronic hepatitis-B virus (HBV) or hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infections. What makes this particularly concerning..
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Attack on doctors at public hospitals in South Africa sparks security concerns
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The South African Medical Association (Sama), and its Eastern Cape branch, has condemned the lack of proper security at public hospitals in the province after a doctor was assaulted by a patient. Dr Archie Solombela sustained a fracture to his right arm and a general worker was also hurt during the attack by a psyciatric..
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Doctors Sound Alarm That SA Mental Healthcare Is Collapsing
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While almost all the previous Life Esidimeni psychiatric patients have been transferred from the NGOs in Gauteng back into hospitals, a group of doctors have warned that the psychiatric structure in South Africa is collapsing. Reports reveal that in some mental health hospitals there are no psychiatrists, and none of the provinces have organised community-based..
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