What SA’s COVID-19 experience tells us about NHI

Posted in: Latest, NHI

For all the suffering and death the COVID-19 pandemic has caused over the last 12 months, it has arguably also provided a unique opportunity to test some of the mechanisms behind South Africa’s proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) system. The centralised procurement of vaccines and the contracting of doctors, for example, are probably not dissimilar from the arrangements we might see under NHI. Kathryn Cleary asks three leading health experts what lessons, for NHI, we should learn from the COVID-19 response.

What SA’s COVID-19 experience tells us about NHI

Health in 2021: Spotlight’s top 12 questions

Posted in: Latest

While COVID-19 will continue to make headlines for some time, 2021 will also be a critical year for healthcare reforms in South Africa and for various aspects of the country’s HIV and TB response. These are Spotlight’s top 12 healthcare questions for the year.

Health in 2021: Spotlight’s top 12 questions

Reimagining health in the Eastern Cape: A dysfunctional public health system is not inevitable

Posted in: Eastern Cape, Healthcare system, Latest, NHI

The persistent challenges in public health in the Eastern Cape, highlight the critical role of leadership. Prof Helen Schneider argues if we are to reimagine a future of access, equity and justice in health and health care in the Eastern Cape, we need bottom-up institution-building involving civil society and not just top-down legislative, budgetary and other reforms.

Reimagining health in the Eastern Cape: A dysfunctional public health system is not inevitable

Interview: Dr Keith Cloete, from District Six to COVID-19 engine room

Posted in: Latest, Provinces, Western Cape

Dr Keith Cloete became head of the Western Cape Health Department on April 1 2020, two weeks into South Africa’s COVID-19 lockdown level 5. Biénne Huisman asked him about the long road from a childhood in District Six to the blur of meetings in the Western Cape’s COVID-19 engine room.

Interview: Dr Keith Cloete, from District Six to COVID-19 engine room

Opinion: What PPE graft means for NHI

Posted in: Latest, NHI

Even as the need for a more equitable health system is being demonstrated, news has broken of large-scale corruption in the procurement of PPE. This makes it difficult for a population worn down by corruption to envisage the transformation of the health system into a system of contracting and procurement under National Health Insurance, writes Sasha Stevenson.

NHI hearings hit SOWETO and West Rand

Posted in: Gauteng, Latest, NHI, Provinces

Alarm bells are still ringing even as the final public NHI hearings hosted by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health wraps up in Gauteng this Monday.

Rowdy Khayelitsha NHI hearing shows parties’ colours

Posted in: Latest, NHI, Western Cape

The public hearing on the NHI Bill in Khayelitsha this week drew a big crowd from areas like Manenberg, Elsies River and Khayelitsha in what turned out to be a robust public hearing with strong political undertones.

Rowdy Khayelitsha NHI hearing shows parties’ colours

Democracy or farce as NHI hearings hits Piketberg

Posted in: Latest, NHI, Western Cape

If these public hearings on the NHI Bill is democracy in action – we are in trouble, writes Alicestine October.

Democracy or farce as NHI hearings hits Piketberg

Calls in Mangaung to fix the healthcare system before implementing NHI

Posted in: Free State, Latest, NHI, Provinces

Many residents of Mangaung in the Free State came out in support of the NHI Bill during the public hearings this week but asked that existing problems in the healthcare sector be fixed.

Calls in Mangaung to fix the healthcare system before implementing NHI

NHI Lawmakers: Face to face with IFP MP Magdalene Hlengwa

Posted in: Latest, NHI

“They all say yes because of their poverty. They don’t know the disadvantages of NHI,” says IFP MP Magdalene Hlengwa, reflecting on the public hearings on the NHI Bill. Biénne Huisman sat down with Hlengwa to discuss NHI and much more.

NHI Lawmakers: Face to face with IFP MP Magdalene Hlengwa

Eastern Cape: NHI Bill public hearings in pictures

Posted in: Eastern Cape, Latest, NHI, Spotlight

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health wrapped up the last public hearings on the NHI Bill for this year on Monday in King William’s Town. Here is the hearings in pictures.

Eastern Cape: NHI Bill public hearings in pictures

Ailing health system in spotlight at OR Tambo NHI public hearing

Posted in: Latest, NHI

Residents of the OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape were mostly in favour of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill at a public hearing in Mthatha, but raised questions on how it will solve problems in the Eastern Cape’s ailing health system, especially in rural areas.