Government seeks partnership with private sector to achieve quality healthcare

QUALITY health care for all, either free or funded by 2030, is what the Presidential Health Summit Report aims for. It also recommends that medical schemes tax rebates, which all private medical scheme members receive, be abolished, and that those funds be redirected to the NHI Fund.

Mindful of the interplay between the public and private sectors, the summit acknowledged the critical role the private sector has to play in the realisation of universal health coverage, and called for ongoing inclusive consultative processes to achieve this goal.

The summit followed a consultative meeting in August 2018 that focused on the National Health Insurance (NHI) and explored ways to strengthen the health system to ensure that it provides access to quality health services for all through an inclusive process.

It was the first engagement on this scale and in this depth among a range of stakeholders who encompassed government, legislators, the health private sector, health economists, health service users, academics, health practitioners, labour and community organisations and community health workers. The final report was published earlier this month.

Nine key areas werelooked into:

1. Human Resources for Health (or the Health Workforce)

2. Supply Chain Management, Medical Products, Equipment and Machinery

3. Public Financial Management

4. Infrastructure Planning

5. Private Sector Engagement

6. Health Service Provision (Delivery)

7. Leadership and Governance

8. Community Engagement

9. Information Systems. The Summit generated support for NHI and for the principles of universal quality health care, social solidarity and equity in health access. It also adopted the principle of “One Country - One Health System” for South Africa.

Having identified critical challenges, it called on Government to urgently prioritise the filling of critical vacant posts so that staff shortages in key areas of the health system can be stabilised. Provinces are expected to prioritise their financial resource allocations in a manner that will ensure that the delivery of quality health care is not compromised.

Also highlighted was the need to review and develop a sustainable financing model to address urgent financial resource requirements, with National Treasury being tasked to ensure that this is finalised soon.

A centralised procurement system with standardised procurement systems and processes was proposed to deal with corruption, economy of skills and scale. This calls for an information technology system that will enable the integration of procurement.

In addition, the success of a quality health system rests on information systems that can generate valid information at the right time and in the right format for decision-making and monitoring at all levels of management, taking into account the need for patient confidentiality.

Further proposals relate to the development of expertise and funding to implement the National Department of Health’s health infrastructure plan in a manner that will respond to changing population and clinical dynamics.

This demands stronger coordination between the Department of Health and partners such as the Department of Public Works. Overall, infrastructure in both the public and private health sectors must meet the requirements of the Office of Health Standards Compliance.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni made no adjustments to medical tax credits in his 2019 Budget Speech last week. This will raise R1 billion in revenue.