Roll-out for Health Insurance approved

THE Eastern Cape is one of two provinces to have been given the green light to implement the second phase of the National Health Insurance (NHI) government initiative.

This was revealed at the media briefing prior to the State of the Province Address yesterday.

O R Tambo District had been identified as a pilot district in the Eastern Cape. The other province is the Western Cape.

“The piloting that has been done in O R Tambo has actually enabled us to be a little [more] advanced than the other parts of the country. One of these days we must take you to Cecilia Makiwane Hospital so you can see what we are able to do through those institutions already connected on the network,” Masualle said.

He said it was now easy to get instant advice from specialists not in the same hospitals. In his address, Masualle said health infrastructure remained at the core of providing healthcare services in the Eastern Cape.

“In the coming year, we will prioritise the refurbishment of 11 facilities, of which four are in the O R Tambo NHI pilot district,” Masualle said. He added that one of the major challenges in health provision was medico-legal litigation.

“We have made significant strides in our quest to root out the corruption we have seen in this area and arrests are imminent,” he said.

The outgoing premier said his government wanted to make a public example of the unscrupulous elements who were “milking the provincial fiscus dry”.

Health MEC Dr Phumza Dyantyi said she will give details of the second phase of the NHI during her policy statement to the legislature. — zolilem@tisoblackstar.co.za