National Health Insurance will fell SA’s teetering public health sector
13 March 2025 - 18:41
UPDATED 17 March 2025 - 13:07
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The entrance of Helen Joseph Hospital in Johannesburg. Picture: SYDNEY SESHIBEDI/GALLO IMAGES
Our first health ombud, Malegapuru Makgoba, who was head of the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC), founded in 2016 by health minister Aaron Motsoaledi to perform health inspections in health facilities in the country, conducted inspections countrywide in the 2016/17 financial year.
About 696 health facilities were inspected and only five were found to be compliant.
Before the ANC government took over from the previous government, the training of nurses in SA was under the auspices of the SA Nursing Council. It prescribed the curriculum for all categories of nursing training, conducted examinations, appointed examiners and moderators, and issued certificates and distinguishing devices. All the nursing training stages consisted of both theory and clinical practice.
To ensure the safety of patients was always guaranteed and maintained, the SA Nursing Council conducted inspections in all health facilities at regular intervals to make sure high standards of quality care were maintained in all health facilities countrywide.
So the point of reference for the inspector and those inspected was the same, which makes it difficult to understand how under the OHSC almost all of those inspected failed to be compliant.
After those shocking findings, anyone would have expected that follow-up and corrective measures would be undertaken by the health department. There was no such thing. It was just a dead end. Today, after many years of no further reports of any more inspections done, a second ombud report has been released by the new head of OHSC, Taole Mokoena.
It revealed dilapidated infrastructure, ill-treatment of patients and poor service delivery and food and staff shortages — hallmark problems at a facility “not fit for purpose”, according to Prof Mokoena.
Those who are clamouring for National Health Insurance (NHI) must wake up to the truth: this is worse than many of us expected, and worse still would be the total collapse of our health services should the government forge ahead with implementation of NHI under the prevailing conditions.
Cometh Dube-Makholwa Midrand
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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LETTER: Total collapse under NHI
National Health Insurance will fell SA’s teetering public health sector
Our first health ombud, Malegapuru Makgoba, who was head of the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC), founded in 2016 by health minister Aaron Motsoaledi to perform health inspections in health facilities in the country, conducted inspections countrywide in the 2016/17 financial year.
About 696 health facilities were inspected and only five were found to be compliant.
Before the ANC government took over from the previous government, the training of nurses in SA was under the auspices of the SA Nursing Council. It prescribed the curriculum for all categories of nursing training, conducted examinations, appointed examiners and moderators, and issued certificates and distinguishing devices. All the nursing training stages consisted of both theory and clinical practice.
To ensure the safety of patients was always guaranteed and maintained, the SA Nursing Council conducted inspections in all health facilities at regular intervals to make sure high standards of quality care were maintained in all health facilities countrywide.
So the point of reference for the inspector and those inspected was the same, which makes it difficult to understand how under the OHSC almost all of those inspected failed to be compliant.
After those shocking findings, anyone would have expected that follow-up and corrective measures would be undertaken by the health department. There was no such thing. It was just a dead end. Today, after many years of no further reports of any more inspections done, a second ombud report has been released by the new head of OHSC, Taole Mokoena.
It revealed dilapidated infrastructure, ill-treatment of patients and poor service delivery and food and staff shortages — hallmark problems at a facility “not fit for purpose”, according to Prof Mokoena.
Those who are clamouring for National Health Insurance (NHI) must wake up to the truth: this is worse than many of us expected, and worse still would be the total collapse of our health services should the government forge ahead with implementation of NHI under the prevailing conditions.
Cometh Dube-Makholwa
Midrand
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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