Summit to discuss health challenges
A National Health Summit to discuss challenges faced by the health sector and the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) will be held in Gauteng on 19 and 20 October.
This was at the request of President Cyril Ramaphosa that the summit be held to discuss challenges faced in the health sector.
Stakeholders have been asked to submit proposals for inclusion in the agenda of the summit and many have already done so.
The Summit will be used as a platform to further explore the issues and proposed solutions raised at the consultative meeting.
It was agreed that strengthening the health system will require that additional resources be mobilised to support this effort.
National Health Insurance
President Ramaphosa last Friday addressed more than 300 participants from a range of organisations and institutions gathered to discuss and work towards strengthening quality healthcare for all, through the implementation of National Health Insurance (NHI).
He told the gathering that progress had been made in expanding access to health services since the demise of apartheid but acknowledged that major challenges exist.
The president reiterated the commitment of the South African government to strengthening the health system, including through the progressive implementation of NHI, and committed himself to providing the leadership to ensure the implementation of NHI.
The Department of Health will implement the NHI as part of a number of implementation departments led by the president.
There are many components of NHI that require the involvement of other departments such as registration of South Africans, fraud and corruption management and mitigation, inter-governmental relations, finance and delivery of health services.
During the engagement, the president emphasised that the implementation of NHI was a priority for government that required resolute leadership, stewardship as well as transparency and good governance.
Ramaphosa also noted that the NHI should ensure that no-one was left behind in terms of access to quality healthcare.
The meeting reached consensus on the urgent need to programmatically implement NHI based on the core principles of human rights, social solidarity and universality, that is, based on healthcare need rather than the ability to pay.
Source: SAnews.gov.za
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