NHI needs both public & private health sectors


At a gathering of health professionals in Cape Town, recently, the issue of improving working relations and trust between the private and public health sectors was raised as very important towards the establishment of the National Health Insurance (NHI). Director-General of the National Health Department, Precious Matsoso, says government is working hard to improve on this.
‘We need to start building trust, we need to start being transparent and we need to be accountable. Both the public and private sectors are accountable to the South African public. So, the question is: How do we do it? The very first step in building the trust is making the information available and meeting our commitments because it is not fair to make empty promises. If we can start with those small things, we can also regain public confidence’.
Chief Executive Officer of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), Dr Olive Shisana, says the private sector’s lack of trust in the NHI process stems back years ago.
‘We still have a private sector that is refusing to implement NHI from 1926. Some of the doctors did not want to become employees of the state and that is the problem’.
Shisana says the reluctance of the private sector to work with government on the NHI fails to recognise the long-term benefits for health care in the country.
‘If you have NHI and have everyone working under NHI, it should be possible to find a formula that will allow them to live a comfortable life while providing health care to all people in the country regardless of their income. One of the other challenges is to ensure our public sector is functioning adequately. It should not matter if it is a private or public sector facility if the standards are the same on both sides’, Shisana says.
She says the NHI’s objective is to make quality health care accessible to all South Africans, irrespective of how deep one’s pocket is.
‘If you need health care you ought to be able to get health care at that particular time and you should get good health care from public or private facility. And it should be financed from the National Health Insurance Fund’, she says.
But the Chairman of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Lord Nigel Crisp, says there are many reasons why the private sector could be fearful. High up on the list is the slice of the private sector’s clientele. However, Lord Crisp says private sector co-operation with government – sooner rather than later – is vital to cushion the long-term effects.
‘Some of the fears would be that they will end up being compromised in some way. They should be fearful because the government is very determined in South Africa to making improvements and that, over time, will affect the private sector. So, it is in the private sector’s best interest to become partners with the public sector by working together to the benefit of the whole population’.
Lord Crisp says public and private health sector collaboration under the NHI will go a long way to help the country address challenges such as HIV/AIDS.
‘You do have the huge problem of HIV/AIDS and I think anything you do in health care in South Africa has got to take account of the impact of HIV/AIDS. You have the burden of HIV/AIDS that will be with you for a very long time. There is another generation or so to face it. That is why you need everyone to pull together and bring their expertise to the party’, says Lord Crisp.
The NHI system will be phased in over time. It will first start in 10 districts that are yet to be named.
Author
Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Unless otherwise noted, you can republish our articles for free under a Creative Commons license. Here’s what you need to know:
-
You have to credit Health-e News. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication.” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by Health-e News.” You must link the word “Health-e News” to the original URL of the story.
-
You must include all of the links from our story, including our newsletter sign up link.
-
If you use canonical metadata, please use the Health-e News URL. For more information about canonical metadata, click here.
-
You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week”)
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. Health-e News understands that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarise or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
-
You can’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
If you share republished stories on social media, we’d appreciate being tagged in your posts. You can find us on Twitter @HealthENews, Instagram @healthenews, and Facebook Health-e News Service.
You can grab HTML code for our stories easily. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our stories. You’ll find it with the other share buttons.
If you have any other questions, contact info@health-e.org.za.
NHI needs both public & private health sectors
by Ayanda Mkhwanazi, Health-e News
March 19, 2012
MOST READ
Tembisa hospital open to the public, cause of fire under investigation
Gauteng Health’s cost-cutting measures could leave patients waiting over 4 months for care
Tembisa Hospital closed to new patients following emergency unit fire
Eastern Cape Health struggles to repair weather-damaged facilities
EDITOR'S PICKS
Related

Millions go hungry, accountability and public participation needed



Millions go hungry, accountability and public participation needed

