State hospitals will deliver a better service if they are allowed to be run as independent entities, the Democratic Alliance said on Monday.
Presenting the DA's alternative health policy to the media, the party's spokesperson on health Mike Waters said the government's tight control of public hospitals had contributed to poor service.
"This has created many of the problems with competitiveness and quality that plague the public service, while also ensuring that prices remain high in the private sector because of a small and captive market.
"The DA plan will allow each public hospital currently administered by the state to be run as an independent management unit," he said.
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The management of every public hospital should be put out to tender so that private health care providers could apply to run them.
"The DA would specifically target for management-transfer those public hospitals that have been most plagued by delivery problems - and Frere Hospital would be top of the list," Waters said.
Speaking at the same briefing, DA leader Helen Zille said attempts by the department of health to impose price controls on private hospitals through the controversial National Health Amendment Bill, would achieve the opposite.
"It will make matters worse by escalating the exit of health personnel from the private sector - which is precisely the opposite of what is needed.
"Closing down will be a preferable option for some providers," she said.
The government's focus should have been on attracting more investors in the private health care sector since the current high tariffs were mainly due to a lack of competition in the sector. - Sapa
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