By Dasen Thathiah
While plans are in the pipeline for a more efficient health-care system, it could take years before universal medical aid schemes became a reality and the gap between public and private health care was bridged.
This emerged at a meeting between representatives of the KwaZulu-Natal Managed Care Coalition and the KwaZuluNatal MEC for Finance and Economic Development, Zweli Mkhize, at the Elangeni Hotel on Tuesday.
Discovery Health's Dr Jonny Broomberg said South Africa was experiencing the reality of a dual health-care system.
"We have a large, supply-driven, publicly-funded system and a smaller, demand-driven private health-care system.
The objective of any health-care system is to achieve universal access to a comprehensive package of services," he said.
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Eighty-five percent of people used government health services, and a mere 15 percent could afford private health care.
While the government's health policy was regarded as "sensible", according to Broomberg, concerns had been raised about its implementation.
"Public hospitals and health care have deteriorated significantly.
"These hospitals are under strain of an increasing population, while there are reductions in the number of staff," Broomberg said.
Research commissioned this year by Discovery Health illustrated that the level of private health care in SA ranked closely with other developed countries, yet public sector levels were significantly lower.
Mkhize agreed that an urgent review of the health care system was called for and said that the ANC had taken a decision at the Polokwane conference in 2007 to implement the system of national health insurance gradually.
Mkhize added that more investment was required by government to rebuild hospitals and deal with quality issues.
He urged members of the private and public health care sectors to "pull together" in order to provide a better system to the public.
dasen.thathiah@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Daily News on November 06, 2008
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