Tag: Department of Health

The South African Constitution envisages public participation in the formulation and adoption of public policy. Government claims to consult the public through the participation process, but recent events have confirmed that it effectively ignores public input and regards it with contempt.

The South African government started discussing the NHI (National Health Insurance) in 2003. After several poor attempts at starting, most people thought that a fully funded first-world healthcare system could never become a reality. Furthermore, the role of medical schemes was not clear since no policy direction exists in this regard from the Department of Health. Many medical schemes have since come out supporting the NHI, realising there is room for collaboration and more fundamental co-existence of the two healthcare systems.

It is evident there are diverse views on the National Health Insurance (NHI) bill. The NHI will always remain a hot topic fuelled by speculation and political ambitions, but none of us can deny that, for the good of the country, the healthcare system needs to transform.

COVID-19 highlighted the necessity of having a viable telemedicine regime as a ‘safety net’ to ensure continued access to healthcare services whilst maximising social distancing. We now have an opportunity to better understand the challenges and exploit the benefits of telemedicine services.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has declared a national state of disaster amid the COVID-19 virus outbreak. While many areas of life are being impacted as the virus spreads, it also presents challenges for many business owners.

Speaking in KwaZulu-Natal on New Year’s Day, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said that the National Health Insurance (NHI) will put private and public hospitals on par with each other. Indeed, rather than improving the quality of care on offer in the public sector, it’s more likely that, by effectively nationalising them, the NHI will reduce the quality of care at private facilities. 

The Department of Health’s Dr Anban Pillay has slammed the Free Market Foundation (FMF) for criticising the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill and has requested that we submit reasons why we believe the government’s proposed NHI scheme will not work and a list of proposed alternatives.