Much has been written about the age at which employees should retire and whether with increasing longevity, the retirement age should increase commensurately. In countries with ageing populations resulting in many living over two decades after retirement, an increasing burden on pension funds has increased the urgency of this debate. A survey from the United States indicated that while there are many factors supporting an increase in the age at which citizens become eligible for Social Security payments that a proposal of this nature is unpopular with voters. It must be stressed however that retirement is a luxury reserved for those with permanent employment and employment is a luxury which…
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Reflections on life in my seventies …
With the onset of winter in South Africa, the time of the “sere and yellow leaf”, I am in a reflective mood as my 74th birthday looms later in the year. I retired from a full-time career as a specialist paediatrician and then a senior government bureaucrat in 2015 having headed a university department of paediatrics and managed two provincial departments of heath in South Africa. Subsequently I have remained busy as a consultant and on the boards of various entities. 2023 marks 50 years since I qualified as a doctor in 1973 and the world around me has changed dramatically since that milestone and as befits that anniversary a…
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Gift of the Givers and a Vaccine Task Force … lessons to be learnt
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…
