OPINION: Budget 2023 – opportunity missed to refocus public health spending?

Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest, NHI

Budgets, while important, are not the right mechanism to drive the structural change needed to improve the responsiveness of our public health system in meeting the needs of the population. But, argues Russel Rensburg, we can reorient the health system towards meeting the health needs of the population and then let the budget bolster the reforms. Here he provides some suggestions on how to go about it and contrasts that with the budget announced by Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana this week.

OPINION: Budget 2023 – opportunity missed to refocus public health spending?

Decaying infrastructure at Tambo Hospital still putting patients and health workers at risk

Posted in: Gauteng, Healthcare system, Healthcare Workers, Latest, NHI, Provinces

Although the Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg, Gauteng in 2017 had been declared unfit for human habitation” and “an occupational hazard, patients and healthcare workers are continuing to receive and provide health services under unusually difficult conditions. Some say they fear for their lives. Thabo Molelekwa visited the hospital and spoke to some healthcare workers and patients about conditions at the hospital and asked the provincial health department about plans to address the concerns.

Decaying infrastructure at Tambo Hospital still putting patients and health workers at risk

OPINION: Mid-term budget fails to show the way to a more resilient recovery

Posted in: Healthcare system, Latest

The Medium-term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) was tabled amid a grim global economic outlook and a climate of increasing political uncertainty, electricity supply challenges, and very high unemployment. Russell Rensburg argues the MTBPS fails to provide a credible path toward a resilient recovery and sets out what can be done to strengthen governance and build social solidarity around the recovery we need.

OPINION: Mid-term budget fails to show the way to a more resilient recovery

Opinion: SA’s TB recovery doesn’t necessarily need a bigger budget, just reprioritisation

Posted in: Spotlight

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has stymied the progress of the tuberculosis response across the world, the call for increased investment is important. Although health programmes can always do with more financial assistance, in South Africa, for its TB Recovery Plan to work, the focus should be on the strategic use of existing resources, argues Russell Rensburg.

Opinion: SA’s TB recovery doesn’t necessarily need a bigger budget, just reprioritisation

OPINION: Reflections on a budget of ‘unmet expectations’

Posted in: COVID-19, Healthcare system, HIV/AIDS, Latest, NHI

Budgets alone do not solve structural issues, but what it does is provide some insight into the government’s plans for addressing its broader developmental priorities. Russel Rensburg unpacks what the medium-term budget policy statement means for the health sector.