Durban - The establishment of an independent public health watchdog has been welcomed with the hope that it will finally put the “ailing” health care system right.
The objective of the Office of Health Standards Compliance is to monitor and enforce compliance with quality standards and investigate complaints arising from non-compliance.
The office has been in existence for more than a year, but it was only on Friday that President Jacob Zuma signed an amendment to the National Health Act that would allow for its establishment.
“Technically, it is new because the whole time the bill was not signed into law,” said Department of Health spokesman Joe Maila.
Michelle Connolly, spokeswoman for the Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union, said the avenues available to report complaints and a lack of service delivery were not working.
The office would be especially useful in rectifying the severe breakdown in emergency services, she said.
“We hope there will finally be concrete action taken to rectify the problems in the public health facilities.”
The People’s Health Movement of South Africa, a lobby group, also welcomed the decision, but with caution.
Commenting on the department’s proposal that private pharmacies, including Dischem and those at retailers such as Pick n Pay, Checkers and Clicks, begin dispensing chronic medication to public health patients, spokeswoman Thoko Madonko called on the Office of Health Standards Compliance to ensure that patients were fully aware of their rights.
The office needed to give the public the assurance that monitoring would take place at these private pharmacies to ensure compliance with service-level agreements, the National Health Act, the Pharmacy Act and the constitution, Madonko said.
Maila said the partnership would be a way to alleviate pressure on public health facilities.
“People who do not need to consult will no longer have to sit in queues just to collect medication.”
It would also allow patients easier access because they would collect their medicine close to where they were, rather than having to go to a designated hospital, Maila said.
The arrangement has been piloted at 20 public health facilities in Gauteng and is to be discussed at a meeting with the minister and all health MECs this week with a view to a national roll-out. This will be announced once agreements with the private pharmacies have been concluded.
Madonko called for details of the service level agreements signed as well as the costs involved to be published, to ensure accountability.
She said the initiative showed the government’s clear commitment to addressing the ailing public health system, but added that she was opposed to the running of health-care services according to business and profit principles.
“Health should not be seen as a commodity but as a human right. The ideal remains that South Africa should have a single, publicly-run, equitable health system.
“The government must ensure that all interventions are grounded in the principle of creating such a system.”
Madonko called on the Department of Health to ensure that all interventions were grounded in this principle.
She also warned that while it was critical to address medication shortages at public health facilities, the private pharmacies should not be used as a “stopgap that may encourage the flow of public resources into the private system without addressing the need to build or increase the capacity of the public sector”.
Shoprite Checkers spokeswoman Sarita van Wyk said the partnership was an extension of the social service the retail chain was rendering to recipients of government grants.
She said the group had offered its facilities to the department a year ago.
“The group has a well-developed infrastructure and an effective distribution channel in place throughout its operations and is therefore well positioned to render this service.
“We welcome the fact that it will be granted the opportunity to assist public health patients by serving as a distribution point for their chronic medication on behalf of the Department of Health.”
Representatives of the group’s pharmacy chain, MediRite, will be meeting the director-general of health this week to finalise its proposed distribution model.
Daily News
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