• Health commentary

    “Accountability” essential for a successful nation!

    “Accountability” as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary is “the quality or state of being accountable i.e. an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions”. My professional training as a doctor made me aware of my accountability for my actions as a health professional. Accountability directly to my patient, a child in my case as a paediatrician, their parents and extended family. Accountability to the professional body with which I was registered to practice as well as to my employer, a public sector health department and university. Later when I moved into health management in 1995, I became legally accountable in terms of the Public Finance Management Act…

  • Health commentary

    COVID-19 … social distancing is now the last line of defence.

    In the term “social distancing” I include the full spectrum of measures introduced to counter the spread of the coronavirus. With the lifting of almost all the restrictions on the movement of individuals in South Africa “social distancing” to prevent the spread of the coronavirus becomes the last line of defence. Recently pictures on social media have shown groups of apparently well educated and informed people in South Africa happily congregating in groups without masks completely ignoring the need to remain at a safe distance from one another. Counter intuitively some are those who continue to work from home due to their age or because they have co-morbidities. For riders…