[e-drug] South African Health Review 2001

[andy@healthlink.org.za]

E-DRUG: South African Health Review 2001
-------------------------------------------------------
[crossposted from DRUGINFO, the South African "E-drug";
the drug related features might interest E-druggers beyond
South Africa. WB]

Hi all

The HST's annual SA Health Review is being launched today, and is available
on the Trust's web site - http://www.hst.org.za/sahr/2001/

Chapters of particular interest to <druginfo> readers might include (HTML
links are provided, but each is also available as a PDF):

* Health legislation - http://www.hst.org.za/sahr/2001/chapter1.htm - the
abstract reads "Health legislation continued to be a highly contested
terrain in 2001.While some progress was noted in advancing the policy goals
of the Department in two areas  - Medical Schemes legislation and the
operation of the new National Health Laboratory Services, other areas were
less successful. Strains in government thinking around the issue of drugs
for HIV/AIDS continued to be evident, with legislative structures sending
out mixed signals, and the government becoming embroiled in a court action
with the Treatment Action Campaign over the provision of Prevention of
Mother-to-Child-Transmission (PMTCT) Programme using nevirapine. Continued
conflict around the provisions of the Medical Schemes Act and its
articulation with financial legislation can also be expected. Although the
year was notable for the withdrawal of the court action blocking
implementation of the Medicines Amendment Act, progress with implementation
has remained slow and no parts of the 1997 Amendment Act are yet in
operation. Perhaps the most outstanding legislative event was the
publication of the Draft National Health Bill. However, implementation of a
national system based on Primary Health Care principles and delivered by
means of the District Health Systems approach still faces considerable
challenges. In particular, continued transformation of the local government
sphere will have considerable potential impacts on the provision of
district-based health care services" - Author/s: Lynette Sait, Equity
Gauge, Health Systems Trust

* HIV/AIDS financing - http://www.hst.org.za/sahr/2001/chapter8.htm -
Author/s: Paul Whelan, Institute for Democracy in South Africa

* Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS Progress and challenges in South Africa's HIV/AIDS
campaign - http://www.hst.org.za/sahr/2001/chapter9.htm - Author/s: Chris
Kenyon,i Mark Heywood,ii Shaun Conway iii
i Health Systems Trust, ii AIDS Law Project, iii International Association
of Physicians in AIDS Care - part of the abstract reads "SA has created one
of the most progressive and far-sighted policy and legislative environments
in the world. Despite the existence of a well thought out plan, sufficient
time, a large economy to draw on, a reasonable pool of skilled health and
education workers and a sophisticated media, these policies and laws have
not been adequately implemented and have not impacted significantly on the
ground. Factors responsible for this include:poverty and inequality; a
public sector undergoing restructuring at every level; a high turnover of
staff; a lack of effective leadership;and a failure to mainstream HIV
activities at all levels of society. The problems of leadership have been
partially counter-balanced by a re-emergence of health activism and social
action to combat the epidemic."

Chapters 10 to 16 provide a unique way of "hearing" the "voices" of various
constituencies - from service users to policy-makers.

The final chapter is a collection of Health and Related Indicators -
ftp://ftp.hst.org.za/pubs/sahr/2001/chapter17.pdf - Author/s:  Candy Day -
Health Systems Trust and Andy Gray -Dept of Experimental and Clinical
Pharmacology, University of Natal. This section has been considerably
expanded, compared to previous editions of the SAHR and the online database
is a major new feature. The full text including tables and graphs are
available in the pdf of this chapter and all the data is available in an
online database at: www.hst.org.za/indic/. The objective of this section of
the Health Review is to present the best available data on a wide range of
health and related indicators. Where possible data from multiple years are
presented. However, caution should be used when attempting comparisons
across time and especially between different sources. Not all sources are
comparable. However, particular attention has been paid to detailed
listings of the definitions used and the sources for each piece of data
presented in this section. Data quality varies considerably between
sources. Where possible, the necessary cautions about poor or unreliable
data have been included. Notwithstanding such concerns, the range and depth
of data available is improving year by year. Where possible the means to
access the raw and complete data electronically has been identified.

regards
Andy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andy Gray MSc(Pharm) FPS
Senior Lecturer
Dept of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology
Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine
PBag 7 Congella 4013
South Africa
Tel: +27-31-2604334/4298 Fax: +27-31-2604338
email: graya1@nu.ac.za or andy@healthlink.org.za


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