Dep. D-G of Health’s announcement on NHI is premature
30 August 2021
This afternoon's announcement by the Deputy Director-General of Health, Dr Nicolas Crisp, that the National Health Insurance (NHI) will come into effect by the end of the year is premature.
There is a parliamentary process, which includes public participation in the National Assembly (NA) as well as the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), that must first be finalised seeing as the NHI contains Section-76 legislation that affects all nine provinces.
It should also be taken into account that the Portfolio Committee on Health is still busy hearing oral input from stakeholders and interest groups, thus, the process is still very far from being finalised.
Furthermore, it must be noted that various clinics on municipal district level as well as hospitals on provincial level across the country are not at all ready to implement the NHI. The premature implementation of NHI systems could result in excessive administrative red-tape because many of these institutions' management of patient records is chaotic and several are still using physical, hard-copy systems. In addition, data collectors are not readily available to capture all the relevant data in order to be ready for the conversion in just four months.
The country's healthcare system finds itself in an irreversible crisis. This is clearly evident during the oversight visits that are currently being conducted. To nationalise the entire healthcare system in both the public and private sectors in an effort to resurrect something that no longer exists is not the answer to South Africa's health problems.
The hope put in the NHI magic wand will make no difference to the country's healthcare services, in fact, it will only make matters worse.
This past week, the media reported that one out of every four members of the South African Medical Association (SAMA), which represents approximately 12 000 doctors in the public and private sectors, are planning to immigrate due to the proposed NHI.
Solidarity has found that 14% of healthcare workers have already started to put their plans to immigrate into action.
The NHI will become a fertile breeding ground for corruption in a department that is already reeling from the alleged misdeeds in which Dr Zweli Mkhize and Digital Vibes are implicated. Ironically enough, it was Mkhize himself who, as the then Minister of Health, gave South Africa the assurance that the NHI will not be affected by corruption.
Those words were clearly empty promises.
This is definitely not the appropriate time to implement the NHI seeing as South Africa's vaccination programme is struggling to get going and by now it is abundantly clear that the 45-million target, set at the start of 2021, will not be achieved.
Above all else, there are not enough doctors, nurses, medicine and medical equipment for a programme like the NHI to succeed.
Until the aforementioned is rectified, the NHI is doomed to fail.
Earlier this year, questions arose about possible corruption amounting to R300 million at the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), which is in the bid to possibly manage and administrate the NHI.
The exact costs related to the NHI remain unclear. Many experts are of the opinion that it is simply not affordable. The money spent on the NHI programme, as part of the Department of Health's current budget, should rather have been used to improve the country's existing healthcare services.
Premature implementation will merely result in yet another ANC-created disaster.
Issued by Philip van Staden, FF Plus MP and chief spokesperson: Health, 30 August 2021
