South African health reform on the rails

South Africa's embattled minister of health, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, has hit another obstacle in her attempts to reform South Africa's health system and steer it from “apartheid health” to an equitable system for all its citizens.

Attempts to curtail the numbers of dispensing doctors—widely cited as a major contributor to spiralling drug costs—have failed in parliament. In July the department announced that it intended forcing dispensing doctors to apply for licences after certain measures had been undertaken. These included an examination of whether a dispensing doctor was necessary in the area they served and …