DA welcomes reports of NHI postponement
If the suggestion in the media today that the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme is to be put on hold is correct, then the DA welcomes this recognition of reality. Should the minister indeed make this announcement tomorrow, then it would be an encouraging sign that he is able to see through all the misinformation that ANC careerists have spread, and identify the fact that the poor will not be served well by this scheme (see report).
Delivering better health care in the public sector does not need us to build enormous and expensive bureaucracy, as contained in the NHI proposal. It requires giving attention to three main problems, which can be addressed with far less money and restructuring.
First, every hospital must be managed by a CEO with experience and training in hospital management, not by ANC cronies from political backgrounds. Improving the health system must begin with improving the management of every hospital.
Second, the hospital management system must be decentralised, so that hospitals do not need to negotiate with the provincial government for the provision of everything from toilet rolls to surgeons. The current system does not allow them to keep any of the money they collect in fees for the improvement of their facilities. The current management structure is an antiquated and inefficient apartheid relic, and must be revised for the modern era.
Third, we need to start a massive drive to find more doctors and nurses. An international recruitment drive would bring many more health professionals to South Africa while we work on increasing the number of South African professionals. In this regard we must:
- Plan for at least one more medical school.
- Lift the ban on new private nursing training and on private medical schools.
- Conduct an enquiry into the South African Nursing Council, whose inefficiency and corruption denies opportunities to many potential nurses.
Statement issued by Mike Waters, MP, Democratic Alliance shadow minister of health, November 4 2009
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