Healthcare
This sector serves 80% of South Africans but struggles with overcrowding and outdated equipment.
What is the public healthcare sector?
This many official languages are recognized in South Africa, often making communication in healthcare difficult.
What is 11?
This country has a life expectancy of approximately 77 years.
What is the United States?
This South African program is aimed at establishing universal health care by 2030.
What is the National Health Insurance (NHI)?
Despite guaranteed access, what two groups can only use public healthcare in South Africa?
Who are refugees and asylum seekers?
This type of care is often the first point of contact, especially in rural areas.
What is primary care?
Around this percentage of South Africans still rely on traditional healers along with modern medicine.
What is over 70%?
This country spends 17% of its GDP on healthcare, the highest globally.
What is the United States?
The public system uses this payment schedule to determine how much each patient pays.
What is the Uniform Patient Fee Schedule (UPFS)?
Why is geographic location a major factor in healthcare inequality in South Africa?
Because most hospitals are in cities, but nearly half the population lives in underserved rural areas.
South Africa’s healthcare workforce shortage is especially severe in this type of area, where 44% of the population lives.
What are rural areas?
South Africa has the world’s largest program dedicated to this chronic infectious disease.
What is HIV/AIDS?
The life expectancy in South Africa is approximately this many years.
What is 62 years?
This 2003 law provides the legal framework for South Africa’s health system.
What is the National Health Act?
Why is the two-tier system in South Africa considered a challenge to healthcare equity?
Because quality care is often only available to the wealthy who can afford private services.
These professionals are considered the “backbone” of South Africa’s healthcare system but are often overburdened.
Who are nurses?
Even though 96% of South Africans live near an HIV treatment facility, this factor is a stronger predictor of quality than race.
What is poverty?
About this percentage of physicians serve rural areas in South Africa.
What is 30%?
This government body registers health professionals and enforces ethical standards.
What is the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA)?
What’s a key reason healthcare professionals leave South Africa, and what effect does that have on the system?
Better pay abroad; it worsens workforce shortages.
This trio of interconnected issues contributes heavily to poor care quality in rural South African health facilities, despite their proximity to patients.
What are staff shortages, outdated equipment, and lack of reliable electricity?
This legislative act legally recognizes traditional healers and supports their integration into the national healthcare system.
What is the Traditional Health Practitioners Act of 2007?
These mobile-based health tools, including WhatsApp, are growing in rural areas to boost access and communication.
What is mHealth (mobile health)?
Name two differences between the private and public healthcare systems in South Africa.
What are: private has updated equipment and short wait times; public is overcrowded with outdated tools?
Identify one thing South Africa can learn from the U.S., and one thing the U.S. can learn from South Africa.
SA can learn emergency infrastructure & training; U.S. can learn community-centered care and traditional medicine integration.