Publications
HST provides free electronic access to over 500 health systems research related reports, publications and papers. Close to 300 of these are publications that have been commissioned and funded by the Trust. Topics include among others district systems development, drug supply management, human resource development, informatics, legislation, finance, environmental health, mental health, lessons learnt, nutrition and sexually transmitted diseases / HIV/AIDS. The main publication of the HST is the annual South African Health Review. From 2005 all HST publications will be available in low resolution only. To explore the range of publications HST offers use the Advanced search to search using a variety of criteria.

When the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Systems Trust brought together a group of senior journalists, politicians and foreign ambassadors to discuss the media and the marginalised the illustration of life in rural South Africa came across more vividly than was intended. Even with its fleet of chartered planes and 4X4 vehicles, the tour could not reach its destination of Mount Frere in the former Transkei.

The rain had left the roads impassable,and if the intention of the visit was to bring to life the experience of health workers trying to provide even the most basic service in such inaccessible terrain, the point could not have been better made. Had the group reached the village they would have come across clinics with no medicines, no water and no electricity. At the same time, they would have encountered glimmers of hope as villagers made attempts to uplift their lives through working together.

Yet life in Mount Frere is no more difficult than it is in the other villages of Transkei, and in much of the rest of rural South Africa. It is only one example of a place neglected and forgotten particularly by the media. How to make news out of the health and development issues affecting the poor was the question the group had to answer. The argument that the media had a moral responsibility to report on disadvantaged communities faded in the light of the more persuasive case that these communities provided the most accurate barometer of how government was progressing. The provision of health services is a window through which we can see development and assess whether high-level political changes have made any difference to peoples lives. If, whatever the good intentions, South Africa does not come to terms with the problems of the poor, it will have failed to lift the lives of millions from the blight of the past, said former Commonwealth secretary-general Shridath Ramphal. He added that whether or not a government is delivering on its promises is news by any medias standard.

In finding ways to link the media and the marginalised the bottom line money principle came up as the factor which kept the two apart. Yet Indian journalist and author Palagummi Sainath took it further. Newspapers need to make a profit, he said, but journalism, particularly in the social sector, is at its best when tied to ideals or principles that go beyond profit.