Posts tagged with 'National Health Insurance'

 

Motsoaledi: We can’t wait to improve healthcare before implementing NHI

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Government does not believe it can wait until the healthcare system is improved before implementing national health insurance, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said.

The minister was speaking at a briefing at Tuynhuys, Parliament, where the report of the outcomes of the presidential health summit, held late last year, was released.

During his address on Tuesday, Motsoaledi said government would be taking significant steps towards implementing universal healthcare.

Last week, president Cyril Ramaphosa said that the National Health Insurance Bill would be tabled before Parliament this year.

NHI will ensure that South Africans can receive free health services at the point of care at both public and private quality-accredited healthcare service providers, Motsoaledi said.

NHI is a proposed state-run health financing system that aims to pool funds to provide access to quality health services for all South Africans regardless of their economic status.

M
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National Health Insurance legislation will hit private hospital sector’s future investment and capital expenditure, NHI laws threaten 132,000 jobs

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National Health Insurance (NHI), which the government is pushing as the solution to SA’s health crisis, could lead to the loss of up to 132,000 jobs, according to the country’s private hospital groups.

NHI, spearheaded by health minister Aaron Motsoaledi, is the government’s policy for introducing universal health coverage and aims to ensure everyone has access to healthcare that is free at the point of service.

The Hospital Association of SA (Hasa), which represents the private hospital sector, was among the industry groups that presented their views on the risks to the economy at last week’s Business Unity SA (Busa) meeting.

The gathering brought together business and government leaders, who have been trying to forge a closer relationship under the auspices of the Public Private Growth Initiative spearheaded by former politician Roelf Meyer and Toyota Europe and Africa CEO Johan van Zyl.

Hasa commissioned economics consultancy Econex to analyse th
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Let’s have a look at why doctors and nurses are facing unemployment

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It’s the age of austerity and it’s bad news for doctors, nurses and patients alike — unless the state can do more with less.

Almost 200 posts for doctors and specialists remain unfilled at Gauteng’s four academic hospitals — and many of these posts are likely to remain empty, the health department says.

Gauteng hospitals can only fill half of its critical medical staff vacancies — positions that normally go to doctors, specialists and nurses, Gauteng health department deputy director general for clinical services Richard Lebethe says.

Hospitals were first informed about this via an April circular sent to hospitals.

The head of psychiatry at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, Wendy Friedlander, says medical officers are feeling the strain of almost 80 vacant posts.

“Doctors [now] have a much greater doctor to patient ratio. If you have more patients, what you can give in terms of time, facilities and resources to each patient is much
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South Africa needs stronger leadership and increased budgets in mental healthcare

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The psychiatric profession should play a greater role in advocating for patients’ rights and improving management of mental health in the public sector after a series of recent tragedies that highlighted the neglect of mental healthcare in South Africa.

Professor Bonga Chiliza, incoming South African Society of Psychiatrists (Sasop) president, says the deaths of 144 patients in the now-notorious Life Esidimeni tragedy; allegations of abuse and human rights violations at the Tower Psychiatric Hospital in the Eastern Cape; and the suicide of UCT Health Sciences Dean Prof Bongani Mayosi following his battle with depression all point to need for better management of public sector psychiatry

Therefore, the organisation will ramp up its lobbying for mental healthcare to be allocated an equitable share of the national health budget. Chiliza says Sasop would also be doing more to encourage medical students to specialise in psychiatry, in order to grow the numbers of qual
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The National Health Insurance (NHI): Who’s in, who’s out and how much will it cost

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The NHI was the centre of the presidential health summit. Now the pressure is mounting for Treasury to figure out how to fund it.

NEWS ANALYSIS

The health system is in crisis, government officials admit. Now, they have just weeks to produce an initial plan on how to fix it ahead of introducing a National Health Insurance (NHI), Deputy President David Mabuza revealed this weekend.

With its namesake, President Cyril Ramaphosa was absent from the presidential health summit. The gathering drew more than 100 representatives from civil society, government, unions, academia and the private sector. Prior to the event, that was held in Boksburg, each delegate received a 21-page concept note outlining challenges within the health system — this included corruption and how the NHI will incorporate the private sector.

Solutions proposed during the meeting will now form the basis for wider consultation ahead of a public plan to turn the health system.
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Why are the private sector remaining wary of universal healthcare

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Globally, one in four private healthcare groups surveyed won’t work with governments. Whether the National Health Insurance (NHI) succeeds or fails will depend on public-private partnerships. But the scheme will have to overcome more than just money woes to get the two sectors to settle old quarrels if new research is any indication.

Under the NHI, a centralised fund will procure a package of services from both the public and private sectors on behalf of South Africans. But it’s unclear how this will work and South Africa isn’t the only country trying to figure this out. Countries such as Indonesia, Egypt and Kenya are also looking to buy services from the private sector as part of the move towards universal healthcare.

But a recent survey of 20 of the world’s biggest private healthcare providers showed many remain wary of working with governments. Collectively, these companies owned 500 hospitals and 7 000 clinics across 40 low- and middle-income coun
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Huge number of ‘medical legal claims’ against health departments – just another sheer sign that the NHI is doomed to failure

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The civil rights organisation AfriForum today expressed concern regarding the huge number of medical legal claims against provincial health departments.

Rapport yesterday reported that Kimi Makwetu, the Auditor General, concluded that these claims are much more in seven of the country’s provinces than the various departments’ industry budget for 2018/2019 and subsequently contain large risks for service delivery.

Dr Eugene Brink, AfriForum Spokesperson for health related matters, says these facts are extremely concerning. “These claims weren’t taken into consideration when the budget was compiled and successful claims will thus have to be paid from money that was intended for services. However, it is not only simply the number of negligence claims that is a matter of concern, but also huge amounts of irregular expenditure.

AfriForum recently particularly submitted criminal charges in all the provinces regarding this type of expenditure that amounted t
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Disastrous ANC has no cure for poor healthcare in the Free State

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The ANC has no cure for the sickly state of health care in the Free State. Year after year the Auditor General (AG) diagnoses the Free State Department of Health with a serious case of poor leadership, mismanagement and maladministration. Year after year, the people of the Free State see no improvement in health care.

The AG’s audit outcome for the Department for the period of 2017 to 2018 indicates:

Irregular expenditure of R820 million (R596 million in 2016-2017).
Fruitless expenditure of R3,1 million (R900 000 in 2016-2017).
Unauthorised expenditure of R141 million (R68 million in 2016-2017).

An example of the poor management is the Department’s appointment of a local service provider that was outsourced to address health care challenges. The service provider was supposed to use the Department’s mobile clinics to focus on efficiency, coverage, specialisation and value for money.

The service provider was paid R24 million (R945 per patient) to do t
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Beplande Nasionale Gesondheid versekerings projek vertraag weens geld te kort, aangesien ANC se staatskas leeg is a.g.v korrupsie

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Volgens Aaron Motsoaledi sal die beplande Nasionale Gesondheid versekerings projek tydelik vertraag word weens begrotings probleme.

Daar word tans gekyk hoe daar meer as 2,000 gesondheidsorg personeel gewerf moet word terwyl die staat sal sorg dat beddens en linnegoed vir hospitale aangekoop sal word.

Meningsvormers vra wat het van die linnegoed geword wat hulle jar gelede gehad het, en hoeveel is met tyd vervang?

Die indruk word gelaat dat dit gesteel is.

Motsoaledi erken dat die land beter af is deur bestaande dienste te onderhou as om dit te vervang met nuwe dienste soos voorgestel deur die nuwe wetgewing.

Kenners sê enige ekonoom sou hom dit vertel het toe hul die plan begin het , en die onweerbaarheid van gratis dienste aan almal is algemene kennis.

Die nuwe bedeling kan beteken dat privaat mediese fondse en hospitale deel sou word van die korrupte staats stelsel.

Deur: Die Vryburger

______________________________
Free Medical-A
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The big question is:- Why medical devices should carry warranties

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South Africa has a unique opportunity to become the global leader in the regulation of warranties for medical devices.

Throughout the world, legal cases against pharmaceutical companies that manufacture medical devices such as implants for treatment of specific conditions are on the increase, as patients are not always properly informed about how the device works, what its intended purpose is, and, most importantly, how long it will work effectively.

A major problem leading to the increasing law suits stems from a lack of information for patients on what to expect from a product and the patient’s own, sometimes unrealistic, expectations.

When it comes to consumer products – which are covered in South Africa by the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) – different remedies are available for consumers if they are unhappy with the product. For example, a consumer buys a product or pays for a service. The manufacturer guarantees that the product should work as inten
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Wonderful News:- R500m to recruit health professionals, buy beds and linen

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Government will reprioritise funds to make R350m available to recruit new health professionals, says Finance Minister Tito Mboweni.

The Minister tabled the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement in the National Assembly on Wednesday.

“Access to healthcare services is enshrined in our Constitution and in our Bill of Rights. We will continue to work closely with the national Department of Health and other role players to ensure that the gradual phased implementation of the National Health Insurance is adequately financed.

“We are immediately reprioritising R350m to recruit in excess of 2,000 health professionals into public health facilities,” he said.

Mboweni said a further reprioritisation of funds will avail R150m to be used to purchase beds and linen for hospitals where the need is more dire.

These two interventions will build on the Presidential Health Summit convened last weekend, which has brought a new focus to improving the quality of healthcar
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Will the NHI just be another state-owned enterprise?

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A report by organisations collaborating under the umbrella of the People’s Health Movement South Africa was submitted to the UN Committee on Cultural, Economic and Social Rights (ICESER), interrogating, among other things the flaws and pitfalls of the country’s National Health Insurance (NHI) proposal.

“The international human rights system does not have the teeth of a legal process but it is quite powerful if the committee recommends, for example, stronger oversight over mental health services, or greater resources. So, we are interested in what their recommendations will be based on their interrogation of the report,” one of the authors, Professor Leslie London from the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at UCT says.

NHI

About a third of the health movement’s report focused on the National Health Insurance (NHI) proposal. Areas of concern flagged include the absence of any reference to preventative health; capacity and resourc
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The National Health Insurance (NHI): Who’s in, who’s out and how much will it cost

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The NHI was the centre of this weekend’s Presidential Health Summit. Now the pressure is mounting for Treasury to figure out how to fund it.

The health system is in crisis, government officials admit. Now, they have just weeks to produce an initial plan on how to fix it ahead of introducing a National Health Insurance (NHI), Deputy President David Mabuza revealed this weekend.

With its namesake, President Cyril Ramaphosa was absent from this weekend’s Presidential Health Summit. The gathering drew more than 100 representatives from civil society, government, unions, academia and the private sector. Prior to the event, that was held in Boksburg. each delegate received a 21-page concept note outlining challenges within the health system. including corruption and how the NHI will incorporate the private sector.

Solutions proposed during the meeting will now form the basis for wider consultation ahead of a public plan to turn the health system. The strategy i
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Ageing health infrastructure in South-Africa must receive urgent attention

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Deputy President David Mabuza has announced that government will prioritise the upgrading and maintenance of health infrastructure in an effort to deal with the challenge of ageing and dilapidated infrastructure in public health facilities.

Mabuza made the remark while highlighting the outcomes of the two-day Presidential Health Summit held in Boksburg.

During the summit, Mabuza said, it was agreed that in the context of fiscal constraints, provinces will be expected to prioritise their financial resource allocations in a manner that ensures that the delivery of health care is not compromised.

“More importantly, this summit pointed out that we need to develop a sustainable financing model for our health system. We will commence with this task immediately.

“National Treasury will be seized with this task to ensure that this model is finalised within a short space of time.

“As we lay a solid foundation for the implementation of the NHI, government wi
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National Health Insurance will cost more than R350 billion:- Solidarity

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“VAT will effectively have to be doubled,” says Solidarity. The Solidarity Research Institute has released a report detailing the enormous amount of funding necessary to effectively implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.

The numbers far exceed those previously calculated by the Health Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi. What’s more worrying is the heavy impact this will have on South African taxpayers.

According to Solidarity researcher, Morné Malan, funding required by the NHI is closer to R357 billion with a deficit of approximately R210 billion.

NHI: How does it affect the taxpayer?
Malan outlined the exorbitant fees which would need to be carried by the South African taxpayer. According to his research, value-added tax (VAT) would effectively double in order to carry the weight of NHI.

Commenting on the burden taxpayers will be forced to carry, Malan said:

“It is very difficult to determine from where the additional mon
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