PRESS ROOM

State of Health Eastern Cape 2023 — Press Pack

19 September 2023

On 19 September 2023, Ritshidze will launch a detailed report into the state of the public healthcare system in the Eastern Cape. Ritshidze data from two districts in the report will be presented to the department of health and other duty bearers at two district-level community meetings during the week. The Buffalo City meeting will be live streamed here: vimeo, facebook and YouTube, and the OR Tambo meeting will be lived streamed here: vimeo, facebook and YouTube.

The report is based on the results of data collected through Ritshidze’s community-led monitoring of 46 health facilities in the province, as well as data collected through interviews with 1,607 key populations in the community.

This is the third edition of the Eastern Cape State of Health report; the first was published in September 2021, and the second in September 2022. Data in this report were collected between July and August 2023. The third edition of the report reveals a number of improvements like shorter waiting times and staff being more friendly on the whole — however staff remain hostile to key populations and people who are late for appointments, and many reports emerged of people being denied services for not having a transfer letter, ID, or being a key population.

Ritshidze is a programme of the PLHIV Sector made up of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), National Association of People Living with HIV (NAPWA), Positive Action Campaign, Positive Women’s Network, the South African Network of Religious Leaders Living with HIV (SANERELA+).

You can follow @RitshidzeSA on twitter, facebook and instagram for regular updates or go to www.ritshidze.org.za for more information.

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About RITSHIDZE

“Ritshidze” — meaning “Saving Our Lives” in TshiVenda — has been developed by people living with HIV and activists to hold the South African government and aid agencies accountable to improve overall HIV and TB service delivery.

Partner organisations include the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), the National Association of People Living with HIV (NAPWA), Positive Action Campaign, Positive Women’s Network (PWN) and the South African Network of Religious Leaders Living with and affected by HIV/AIDS (SANERELA+)—in alliance with Health Global Access Project (Health GAP), the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law.

CLICK HERE to read more and see where we work.