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The Health Market inquiry (HMI) established by competition commission to investigate South Africa’s private healthcare market released its provisional report on 5th July 2018 in the presence of the Minister of Health, media and stakeholders from healthcare sector. The HMI was chaired by Judge Sandile Ngcobo, a retired Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court. The Commission after 4 years of detailed investigation and multiple stakeholder consultations concluded that: Private health market is characterised by high and rising costs of healthcare and medical scheme cover; disempowered and uninformed consumers; and ineffective regulation and failures of accountability at many levels. The 808 page provisional report makes several interesting findings and lists out some recommendations including (but not limited to): Establishment of a supply side regulator to set the rules of the game and scrutinize the private sector: Measurement and Public reporting of health outcomes by the private providers to improve competition and inform patients about quality of care; Replacement of Certificates of Need with hospital licences for equitable spread of facilities across the country.

The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced today that preliminary laboratory results indicate a cluster of cases of Ebola virus in North Kivu province. The announcement was issued little more than a week after the Ministry of Health declared the end of an outbreak in Equateur Province in the far western part of the country, some 2500 km from North Kivu.

From the 17 to 21 July the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization country office in Malawi hosted participants from 9 countries in Africa at a workshop on salt reduction and dietary interventions to prevent and control cardiovascular diseases and hypertension in particular. The nine countries represented were South Africa, Lesotho, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botwana, Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi and the Seychelles. The distinguished guests during the opening ceremony were Dr Charles Mwansambo who is the Chief of Health Services, Dr Leslie Mgalula, the Acting WHO Representative for Malawi and Dr Jones Masiye, the Head of the Non-communicable Diseases Unit in the Ministry of Health.