Human Interest

19th WITS SKILLS TRAINING COURSE

The next Wits Clinical Skills Course will be held on Friday 19th March 2010.

Participants have the chance to do 5 skills stations of 80 minutes each during the day.As always, the focus will be on practical skills relevant to rural hospital and primary care practice.

Details of the course are as follows:

Date: Friday 19th March 2010

Time: 7H45 to 17H15.

Venue: Clinical Skills Unit, Centre for Health Sciences Education, 3rd floor, Wits Medical School, Parktown

Who will benefit: Community service doctors, rural doctors and general practitioners wishing to improve their clinical skills postgraduate family medicine students.

Cost: R750 per participant (includes refreshments, lunch, handouts and certificate). Concession for current Wits postgraduate students: R500

CPD points: 7 points will be awarded for full participation

Skills to be covered: Topics for this course may include endotracheal intubation, CPR, the IMCI approach, obstetric emergencies, eye examination, respiratory problems, approach to chest x-rays, developmental assessment, interpreting FBC's, fracture management, etc. (All topics are subject to confirmation a final list will be available in late February.)

An Assessment of Current Support Strategies for Patients with TB in KwaZulu-Natal

Published by: 
Health Systems Trust

Poverty has long been recognized as one of the factors predisposing people to TB (Lancet 2005) and, in South Africa, many patients with TB live in poor conditions. In order to ameliorate these conditions, a few initiatives to support patients with TB have been made in KwaZulu-Natal. To date, support for TB patients has been provided in the form of free treatment at government hospitals and clinics (Department of Health 2001), and nutritional supplementation and social grants (Department of Social Development 2006)1.

District Health Barometer 2007/08

Published by: 
Health Systems Trust

The Health Systems Trust (HST) released its latest edition of the District Health Barometer on the 6th of July at the Health Informatics South Africa conference, Emperors Palace, Gauteng. The publication illustrates important aspects of the health system at district level through the analysis of a selected range of health indicators from which comparisons among districts and provinces can be made. Data feeding into the report are drawn from a range of sources including the national Department of Health, Statistics SA, the TB register and the National Treasury. It is the only publication of its kind in South Africa that makes available comparative data for the purpose of measuring and tracking progress in primary health care at district level.

Media coverage of the DHB 2007/08

Table of Contents:

Foreword

Introduction and Overview
Background
Indicators used in this DHB
Methodology and Data Sources
Data Display

Section A: Indicator Comparisons by District

1. Socio-economic Indicators
1.1 Deprivation Index
1.2 Equity: Monitoring the gap between the most and least deprived districts

2. Input Indicators
2.1 Per Capita Expenditure on Primary Health Care
2.2 Proportion of District Health Services Expenditure on District Management
2.3 Proportion of District Health Services Expenditure on District Hospitals
2.4 Cost Per Patient Day Equivalent in District Hospitals

3. Process Indicators
3.1 Nurse Clinical Workload
3.2 Bed Utilisation Rate
3.3 Average Length of Stay
3.4 Clinic Supervision Rate

4. Output Indicators
4.1 Immunisation
4.1.1 Immunisation coverage
4.1.2 Immunisation drop out rate (DTP1-3)
4.1.3 Immunisation coverage (Measles 1st dose) and drop out rate (Measles 1 2)
4.2 Caesarean Section Rate
4.3 Male Condom Distribution Rate
4.4 PMTCT Indicators
4.4.1 Proportion of antenatal clients tested for HIV
4.4.2 HIV Prevalence amongst antenatal clients tested
4.4.3 Nevirapine uptake rate among pregnant HIV positive women
4.4.4 Nevirapine uptake rate among babies born to HIV positive pregnant women
4.5 Primary Health Care Utilisation Rate

5. Outcome Indicators
5.1 Incidence of New Sexually Transmitted Infections
5.2 Tuberculosis
5.2.1 Smear conversion rate
5.2.2 TB cure rate
5.3 Diarrhoeal Incidence in Children Under 5
5.4 Rate of Children Under 5 Years Not Gaining Weight
5.5 Delivery Rate in Facility

6. Impact Indicators
6.1 Stillbirth Rate
6.2 Perinatal Mortality Rate (PNMR)

Section B: District and Province Profiles
- South Africa
- Eastern Cape Province
- Free State Province
- Gauteng Province
- KwaZulu Natal Province
- Limpopo Province
- Mpumalanga Province
- Northern Cape Province
- North West Province
- Western Cape Province

Appendices
Appendix 1: Correlation of the National Antenatal Sero-Prevalence Survey with the DHIS
Appendix 2: Deprivation Indices
Appendix 3: Further Notes on Methodology
Appendix 4: Population Data by District and Province Comparing the DHIS and 2007 Community Survey Population Estimates

Raw Data, Sources and Working Documents: Most of the zipped files are in 7zip format. This free software can be downloaded from http://www.7-zip.org/

Barriers to Womens Rights in Implementation of The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act (CTOPA) in KwaZulu- Natal

Published by: 
Health Systems Trust

Unsafe abortions are recognised as a global health problem. It is estimated that, worldwide and annually, twenty (20) million abortions are induced by untrained people under medically unsafe conditions. It is further estimated that, worldwide and annually, eighty thousand (80 000) women die as a result of unsafe abortions while another five (5) million women suffer non-fatal health problems (UNDP) as a consequence of unsafe abortions.

Why HIV is still winning

In one sense, the fight against HIV sounds painfully simple: just get people to stop having unprotected sex. Making this happen, though, is proving extremely complicated. From prostitution in informal settlements, to misleading statements by our leaders, and the dangerous consequences of men having multiple wives and lovers, the factors driving the sexual transmission of HIV are many and varied.