What is at stake in South Africa’s upcoming provincial elections when it comes to healthcare? Ufrieda Ho put questions to five political parties about their plans to get Gauteng Health on track to better healthcare services after the polls. Only two parties responded .
The position of MEC for Health in Gauteng is one of the most important, and probably one of the toughest jobs in public sector health governance in South Africa. Spotlight sent ten questions to the new Gauteng MEC for Health Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko. Here are her answers.
The headline-making persecution of paediatrician Dr Tim de Maayer is part of a wider trend whereby principled public sector healthcare workers are often abandoned to the whims of managers who are vindictive, incompetent, or both. Add the slow movement on South Africa’s healthcare worker policy, the poor management of the Health Professions Council, and the short shrift given to healthcare workers’ concerns about National Health Insurance, and the picture that emerges makes a mockery of government’s talk of valuing healthcare workers.
