President’s plan for fixing health delayed again
After missing a number of deadlines, devising a health compact as a precursor to the ANC's promised NHI, ‘still needs more time’
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ambitions of devising a plan for fixing the health system have once again been delayed, as participants from last year’s health summit say they need more time to do a proper job. Ramaphosa convened the two-day summit in late October, where delegates discussed ways to tackle the crisis in SA’s health system. The high-level gathering drew 600 delegates from the public and private sectors and ended with a promise to craft a blueprint for tackling the problems in the healthcare sector, which has seen services virtually collapse in many parts of the country. The summit ended with a promise to craft a health compact by December 10, but late last year that deadline was pushed out to the end of January 2019 after some stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, said the time-frame was too short. It has now emerged that work on the compact, which is expected to contain concrete steps for improving SA’s health system, is still under way. “We have given oursel...
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