Recently it was reported that Gift of the Givers, a charitable organisation, has been distributing food to hospitals in the Eastern Cape. This was reportedly due to the provincial health department being unable to ensure adequate food supplies to patients due to what was termed a “budget shortfall”. If even partially true it is an iniquitous situation for State hospitals to find themselves and begs the question, why has it come to this? I have written on many occasions that we should expect greater accountability from those responsible for the management of health departments in this country. This is not the first time the unacceptable conditions in Eastern cape Hospitals…
-
-
Accountability … measuring performance
A recent post elicited a request, “Please share your thoughts on how you see the importance of performance data in accountability”. I make no claim to have expertise in the theory and science of performance management but accountability is undoubtedly linked to measures of performance. As is my wont, I went to the dictionary for the a definition of the verb, “account” and found “to furnish a justifying analysis or justification”. It follows thus that accountability is the state of being accountable i.e subject to giving account. In my initial post I had listed accountability as a characteristic of good governance. I used the word more in an ethical sense…
-
Endless meetings and Life … Reflections on a poem
The poem translated from the original Portuguese is attributed to a Brazilian poet, Mario de Andrade, although there is some doubt if he was the author as there is indeed regarding the title of the poem, “My Soul has a Hat” “I counted my years and realized that I have less time to live by than I have lived so far. I feel like a child who won a pack of candies. At first, he ate them with pleasure, but when he realized that there was little left, he began to taste them intensely. I have no time for endless meetings where the statutes, rules, procedures, and internal regulations are…
-
Thoughts on Governance and Leadership … what has gone wrong?
I have not posted on Househam on Health for some time for two reasons. Firstly, as with many others I am sure, I have been shocked, disillusioned and depressed by the scandal that has unfolded at the highest level in the South African public health sector. Secondly, I have been engaged in a project to assess financial management in a provincial department in South Africa which has been both an interesting and challenging experience. These events have led me to reflect again on a question that I was asked some time ago and one that I have asked myself many times. What are the differences between a department of health…
-
The COVID-19 Vaccine dilemma …
I highly recommend a read of this article as even if one disagrees with some of the conclusions it certainly provides much food for thought … https://theconversation.com/south-africas-vaccine-quagmire-and-what-needs-to-be-done-now-163784 I have previously opined on more than one occasion on the need to employ effective logistics to the COVID-19 Vaccine program and further, the need to employ every resource at the country’s disposal faced with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Faced by the delta variant of the virus and a potentially disastrous third wave of infections in South Africa certainly there is an argument that the current policy should be reviewed to alter the vaccination trajectory. I would prefer to see less…
-
Walking the Road of Healthcare in South Africa now available!
My book is now available a little earlier than expected on the link below. Your comments are very welcome! https://publisher.co.za/product/walking-the-road-of-healthcare-in-south-africa-my-40-year-journey/
-
A reflection on “Echoes of Austerity” … the truth should be told!
I recently, completely by chance, came across a paper published in 2019 in a peer-reviewed journal, Focaal – Journal of Global and Historical Anthropology, authored by a United States based, South African academic, Theodore (Ted) Powers entitled, “Echoes of Austerity”. (https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/focaal/2019/83/fcl830102.xml?rskey=kneG81&result=1) It was disconcerting to find that I featured as a less than flattering central point of this anthropological discourse on, “Policy, temporality and public health in South Africa”. Further investigation revealed that Powers is an Associate Professor at the University of Iowa having previously been affiliated to the University of Pretoria. In the abstract of the paper he indicates that his intention was “to explore how policy principles associated with…
-
The state of South Africa is not good!
As I write this, I am challenged by the state of South Africa today. Echoing the words of an American President, Gerald Ford, addressing the United States Congress in his 1975 State of the Union Address when he memorably told his nation that, “the state of the Union is not good” I would say that “the state of South Africa is not good”. South Africans are challenged daily by failures of service delivery from local, provincial and national government as well as State-owned entities. As a South African health professional I am particularly concerned by the impact of these failures on the public health service that serves the majority in this…
-
Walking the Road of Healthcare in South Africa … is now available!
As possibly the longest serving head of a Provincial Health Department in South Africa, Dr Craig Househam shares his autobiographical journey: From a youth growing up in apartheid, to a doctor, specialist paediatrician, and the extraordinary career in public service that followed. From the advent of democracy to the AIDS crisis, Dr Househam was at the coalface of South African healthcare. Journey with him as he regales the reader with analysis, anecdotes and insights into the people and decisions that have influenced healthcare in South Africa over the past 25 years. Walking the Road of Healthcare in South Africa: My 40-year Journey
-
COVID-19 vaccination … it cannot be a government alone!
This week I accompanied my wife to apply for a new South African passport at a Home Affairs Office that I will not name but located within the Greater Cape Town area. The office opens its doors at 8am but when we arrived just after 6:30am on a midweek morning the queue stretched along the front of building and around a corner. This was where we joined the queue of South Africans patiently waiting in an orderly fashion in the dark for the doors to open. While most people were wearing masks there was no social distancing. Only as it became light did I notice the red lines painted on…