Thomas Johnson - Medical Blog

In an article titled " Western Cape in a bubble " in BizNews this week the Institute of Race Relations' (IRR) CEO Frans Cronje wrote the "Western Cape is another country". He says so after visiting the South Cape town of Swellendam where residents spoke favourably of the services from the South African Police Service and government health clinics.  The IRR, aka South African Institute of Relations, describes itself as a "classical liberal” think-tank.   While its reports are authoritative and well-researched, most of its members who frequently write in the media are anti-ANC government and its policies with an unashamedly laissez-faire free-market bias, ideology and narrative.   (There's a contradiction in their position because based on many of their articles, they have little understanding of how the free market in modern economies operate.   Their position is to support the continuation of the apartheid-era concentrated, isolationist high-pr...

This is a follow-up to my previous post about Groote Schuur Hospital’s patient services (see  here ). Readers might be wondering why I rely on public health and don't have medical insurance.  The reason is it's unaffordable to me.  We know about how medical aid/insurance members who pay high monthly premiums may find they've reached the claims ceiling and must pay thousands owing to healthcare providers themselves, or find certain procedures are not covered.  At a general practitioner last week there was the sign that said since 2017 they’re not providing services to  Discovery's Keycare  members per the attached Discovery letter. From time to time I've examined schedules from different companies to see if perhaps there are affordable plans.  But they're so complicated with numerous options under one basic plan.  In this they're like motor cars – different variations on one basic model depending on the level of luxury one wants....

This is update to my previous post (see  here ) regarding the Health Professions Council of South Africa's (HPCSA) dormant investigation into Groote Schuur Hospital's CEO Dr Bhavna Patel, Prof. Andrew Nicol and others. The HPCSA's CEO/registrar Dr Raymond Billa acknowledged receipt of my April 1 letter about the delays to investigating my mother's case. He said he would investigate and "report back within five working days" (by April 9). He noted my "disappointment and scepticism" but said the HPCSA is an "advocate of the public". Later that afternoon (April 2) I received a phone call followed by an email from a HPCSA legal officer who said she had just been handed the case (I shall not name her at this time because she is new to the case and to do so would be unfair. I shall use her initials KM). She had not yet reviewed the file fully but gave me a progress report. The case had not been abandoned as I thought. But it was dormant...

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has abandoned or suspended the investigation of my November 2017 complaints against Groote Schuur Hospital's CEO Bhavna Patel, Trauma Centre's Prof. Andrew Nicol, head of the Western Cape Health Department Dr Beth Engelbrecht and others. They have not responded to my communications despite telling me in 2018 I would be informed in December of the outcome of the preliminary inquiry. As we already know, the organisation is seriously dysfunctional  as has been reported over the years (see  here ,  here  and  here  for some of the reports about it including the outcome of a  ministerial task team investigation ). Trauma Centre doctors Ahmed Al Sayari, Mikhail Botha and Marcelle Crowther are implicated in my mother's suspicious death on 7 July 2017 and Nicol and the others for refusing to investigate which is required by health laws. Premier Helen Zille too refused to investigate. From September ...