By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa affirms government’s commitment to the National Health Insurance (NHI) that seeks to provide quality healthcare services, accurate diagnosis, and free treatment to all South African citizens
“Such a healthcare system should be adequately staffed with well-trained and motivated healthcare professionals supported by effective management and leadership, “Ramaphosa said on Friday.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the second Presidential Health Summit at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg.
The summit is a platform to review the implementation of the interventions agreed to during the 2018 summit, assess the performance of the health system against the Health Compact, and evaluate the readiness to implement NHI.
To achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the First Citizen, told delegates that government must prioritise several key areas, including funding.
“Resources will need to be pooled to provide access to quality healthcare for all, starting with government funding health services that have experienced a massive budget reduction in the past few years.
“We will also need to mobilise resources to address perennial problems such as HIV, TB and other non-communicable diseases.”
Even though South Africa was negatively affected by COVID-19, the President believes the health systems have proven to be remarkably “resilient”.
He acknowledged that the pandemic disrupted the implementation of the nine pillars of the Presidential Health Compact, which lays a foundation for a five-year roadmap for health systems strengthening reforms towards accelerating UHC.
“But work did not grind to a halt. On the contrary, it continued despite the difficult terrain we were navigating at the time.
“We were also fortunate in that we put the legislative wheels for NHI in motion before the pandemic struck.”
He announced that the NHI Bill, which was introduced in Parliament in 2019, is expected to be debated in the National Assembly by June 2023 and then considered in the National Council of Provinces.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of GCIS.