NHI means National Health Implosion for health practitioners
24 July 2018
According to Morné Malan, a researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute, the implementation of the controversial National Health Insurance Bill could have a drastic ripple effect on job losses. However, the trade union added that it was already in the process of fighting the proposal and that it was pro-actively working on alternative proposals.
Malan claims that should the NHI be passed into law, all hospitals will have to meet quality criteria equivalent to that of most private hospitals to be able to qualify for the NHI. “Currently, only 25 out of 3 500 public health care institutions perform well enough to form part of the NHI, which means that a large number of employees at public hospitals will probably lose their jobs because these hospitals will be facing a dubious future,” Malan warned.
According to Malan, the NHI will also result in numerous job losses in the provincial health departments as the mandates of these departments will undergo changes, and between 30 000 and 40 000 jobs in the private medical funding industry will also be in jeopardy. “Realistically speaking, only five private medical schemes will survive this transition and it is highly unlikely that all the excess staff members will be accommodated in the new system,” Malan said.
Malan explained that the NHI will require all specialists to relinquish their practices in order to work in hospitals. “It seems as if specialists will no longer be able to render services outside the context of a hospital, and that no clear mechanism exists in terms of which specialists could be contracted directly, which will have major implications for their remuneration and working conditions. Patients will first have to be sick enough to be hospitalised before they will be able to see a specialist,” Malan added.