The Rural Health Advocacy Project (RHAP) advocates for improved access to high quality, comprehensive health care services in rural areas with the aim of improving the nation’s health. The RHAP is a partnership between Wits Centre for Rural Health, RuDASA and SECTION27, incorporating the AIDS Law Project.

RURAL HEALTH – KEY TO A HEALTHY NATION

NEWS

HOSPITAL CEOs WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR FAILING SYSTEMS AT THEIR INSTITUTIONS. 19 JULY 2010.  In this article,  Health-E reports of KZN Health MEC Dr Dhlomo urging Hospital CEOs to “manage by walking around the hospital to see if things are working, if staff are at work. Go to the clinics that fall under you to see if they are working too. The face of the province rests with you.”

OSD HAMPERS A FAIR DISTRIBUTION OF DOCTORS TO RURAL AREAS-BUT AT LEAST WE GOT WORLD-CLASS SOCCER STADIUMS: OPINION PIECE BY RuDASA CHAIR DR KARL LE ROUX. 9 JULY 2010. Read in this piece why the OSD is still anti-rural, not because doctors say they earn too little, but because salary differences with other urban-based categories are too wide. Can rural health keep on relying on exceptional doctors? Le Roux argues ” The failure to attract larger numbers of “ordinary” doctors to work in rural hospitals to join the extra-ordinary ones already there, will mean that voiceless rural poor will continue to receive sub-standard healthcare, and children and women will continue to die unnecessarily in the same country that can wow the world with remarkable, beautiful stadiums built for a month of soccer”.

MAKING RURAL REHAB POSSIBLE: AN ASSESSMENT BY A RURAL PHYSIOTHERAPIST. 8 JULY 2010. Read this letter to the EC Department of Health by a rural physiotherapist from the Eastern Cape. “I hope this short assessment helps to raise some of the issues that I feel could be addressed in order to make the Rehabilitation Services at a district hospital more effective and efficient. These changes could make working in a rural setting a wonderfully rewarding experience, as we overcome geographic hurdles to provide excellent care”. In a PHC setting, a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) of health workers is crucial: doctors, nurses, dieticians, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and audio therapists, radiographers, social workers, dental therapists, community health workers etcetera. Many rural hospitals lack such a MDT due to a general lack of rural posts, and difficulties in attracting allied health workers to rural areas. Where such a team is available, and coupled with the necessary resources, much can be done to improve the quality of life of people with disablities in rural areas.

3 MONTHS OF ARV SUPPLY FOR STABLE PATIENTS GOOD NEWS FOR RURAL HEALTH. 6 JULY 2010. Rural patients spend significant amounts of their monthly income on accessing health facilities and often travel from far. Many need to take a day of leave every month when visiting the clinic or hospital to collect their ARVs. Moreover, most rural health facilities are confronted with severe staffing shortages and long waiting times for patients to see a doctor or nurse. The Department of Health’s confirmation that stable patients on ARV treatment can now return on a 3-monthly basis to fetch their medication is therefore good news for rural health. Read more detail in the Joint SECTION27/TAC Press Statement (6 July 2010).

RuDASA NEWSLETTER JUNE 2010. The latest RuDASA newsletter speaks about rural recognition, rural conferences, rural rehab, rural awards, rural students, rural hospitals, and much more!

AUTISM: EARLY DIAGNOSIS HAMPERED BECAUSE RURAL KIDS ARE KEPT HIDDEN. 13 JUNE 2010. Read this Sunday Times article which brings to the fore the critical role of allied health workers in rural settings. South African speech therapist Dr Nola Chambers says: “If you are able to diagnose and work with autistic children before the age of three, their chances of academic success and being able to communicate verbally are much greater. Unfortunately, many children in SA, especially rural children, are not diagnosed until the age of seven, when parents try to get them into school.”

14th ANNUAL RURAL HEALTH CONFERENCE ‘INSPIRATION WITHOUT BORDERS’: This year, the annual RuDASA Conference on Rural Health will be held in Swaziland from 26 to 28 August, co-hosted by Medecins Sans Frontiers. Any rural health worker and other interested stakeholders are invited join the conference which will again bring the latest developments around rural health care in the spotlight. There will be skills-building workshops, presentations by key speakers, and an advocacy track led by the Rural Health Advocacy Project. Download the rudasaflyer20101706 with programme and registration form.

RURAL DOCTORS AWARDED FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY. 11 JUNE 2010. For the third year, the Mail and Guardian published their feature of young South Africans one should take to lunch: “These are young people who will shape our country in the decades to come“. This year three rural doctors have been identified as leaders who make a critical difference: Dr Ben Gaunt, Dr Taryn Gaunt and Dr Karl Le Roux. All three doctors work at Zithulele Hospital, in the deeply rural Eastern Cape, while Karl is also the chairperson of RuDASA. Read more about this rigthful recognition: 200 young south african you must take to lunch. Well deserved congratulations also go to Vuyiseka Dubula from the Treatment Action Campaign, Dr Rebecca Hodes from the AIDS and Society Research Unit at UCT and Lesley Odendaal from MSF, all recognised for their exemplary work in the field of health.

PRESS RELEASE. 9 JUNE 2010. CURRENT OSD OFFER STILL DISADVANTAGES RURAL COMMUNITIES. The Rural Health Advocacy Project, Rural Doctors Association of Southern Africa, SECTION27, incorporating the AIDS Law Project and Wits Centre for Rural Health support SAMA’s rejection of the final OSD offer to public sector doctors.

3rd BEMF MEETING: PROBLEMS OF PROVINCIAL HEALTH FUNDING. 28 MAY 2010. The Budget and Expenditure Monitoring Forum (BEMF), of which the RHAP is a member, held its third meeting on 21 May 2010. It brought together over 30 people from 10 organisations. The aim was to understand what civil society can do to ensure that the budgeting process –at the national and provincial levels– results in the appropriate allocation and use of financial resources to address health needs.

LAUNCH of PUBLIC INTEREST LAW CENTRE SECTION 27. 7th of MAY 2010. One of the three partners of the Rural Health Advocacy Project, SECTION27, was officially launched in May 2010. SECTION27 incorporates the AIDS Law Project, one of South Africa’s most successful post-apartheid human rights organisations. SECTION27 is a public interest law centre that seeks to influence, develop and use the law to protect, promote and advance human rights.

RHAP TAKES PART IN THE UCT RURAL HEALTH AWARENESS WEEK. 12 to 16 APRIL 2010. Long-running student society Rural Support Network (RSN) organised the Rural Health Awareness Week (RHAW) at UCT from 12 to 16 April. The RHAW aimed to expose students to the plight of rural health care in South Africa. The RHAP took this opportunity to speak to students from various health disciplines about the need for more students choosing a rural health career.

WITS LAUNCHES FIRST RURAL HEALTH CAREER DAY. 5TH OF MARCH 2010. Wits University launched the very first Rural Health Career Day in the North-West Province, on 5 March 2010. The initiative aimed to create awareness and interest amongst rural leaners in the province, encouraging them to consider a career in the medical sciences.

RURAL HEALTH IN FOCUS. 12 FEBRUARY 2010. MAKING EXPENDITURE CONTROL, EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY WORK FOR RURAL HEALTH. This issue focuses specifically on rural health financing, efficiency and equity. To fully appreciate the support rural health care needs in order to meet national goals, the Rural Health Advocacy Project invited the President, the Minister and Deputy Minister of Finance, the Minister and Deputy Minister of Health, as well as the other Finance MinMec and Members of the National Health Council to shadow a rural doctor for a full day. Update 10 June 2010: We are pleased to announce that the HoD for KZN Health and MEC Finance for Western Cape have taken up the call. Unfortunately, national and other provinces have shown little interest in this initiative to experience rural health from the ground.

PRESS RELEASE 11 DECEMBER 2009. RURAL COMMUNITIES DISADVANTAGED BY KZN COMMUNITY SERVICE MEDICAL OFFICER PLACEMENTS FOR 2010. The unequal allocation of Community Service Medical Officers to rural hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal comes as a great setback for some of the most rural communities in KZN and presents a major hurdle for the implementation of the new treatment guidelines announced by President Zuma on World AIDS Day.

WITS CENTRE FOR RURAL HEALTH TO ESTABLISH MULTI-MILLION RAND DISTRICT EDUCATIONAL CAMPUS IN THE NORTH WEST. 11 NOVEMBER 2009. District healthcare development in the North West Province has received a significant boost, with the advent of a major new grant. Training of all health worker categories, resulting in improved service delivery, will be facilitated by the establishment of a district educational campus, as part of the Wits Centre for Rural Health.

LAUNCH OF THE WITS CENTRE FOR RURAL HEALTH. 13 August 2009. On the 13^th of August 2009 the Centre for Rural Health (CRH) was officially launched at the Medical Faculty of the University of the Witwatersrand. Hosted by the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences, and under the leadership of Professor Ian Couper, the centre will focus on two main products:1) Human development for rural health care through under and postgraduate training. 2) Development of Intellectual Capacity in the field of rural health, through research, development of degrees and diplomas, and production of publications. The launch was honoured by the presence of the late Deputy Health Minister, Dr. Molefi Sefolaru, a Wits Medical Graduate himself. “We appreciate the launch of the Centre, particularly because it supports the recruitment and retention of personnel for rural health services. There are huge inequities in the human resource availability between the private and public sectors, as well as between urban and rural areas in South Africa,” said the Deputy Minister. “To overcome the challenges in rural areas and to ensure equitable distribution of resources, we need to focus on improving integrated service delivery through better co-ordination of planning and resource deployment, and realise the constitutional right of the rural poor to health care services,” added Dr Sefularo. Director for the Centre for Rural Health, Professor Ian Couper, concurred with the Deputy Minister, and said that the country needed a coordinated long-term approach if it were to succeed in its mission of producing the rural workforce in South Africa. Read the full report of the launch here.

PRESS STATEMENT by RuDASA. 27 June 2009. OSD IS ANTI-RURAL. There has been a lot of focus on the OSD proposals by the government – and on the plight of doctors generally. The supposed goals of the OSD are to start to redress the gross under-remuneration (according to the minister of health) and to develop strategies of attracting and retaining health care workers in the public sector.

*Photo credit : The photograph in our site banner was taken by Izak De Vries

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