Ramaphosa signs Presidential Health Compact

President Cyril Ramaphosa

The compact is an culmination of a collaborative efforts by government, civil society, business, private providers, academia and health professionals to develop a plan that includes clear objectives, timelines, indicators and financial resources to effectively address challenges in the sector.

Ramaphosa accompanied by Health Minister Zweli Mkhize officiated over the ceremony which took place at George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, Tshwane.

The compact aims to standardise the quality of public healthcare by addressing nine key issues. These include staff shortages, labour corruption, infrastructure and stock-outs of medicines,community engagement and supply chain management in the health department.

In a bid to improve the health system countrywide, the president emphasised the need to have integrated systems across the department to ensure an effective healthcare system.

“We will move from working in silos and we will seek to have a much more integrated approach. This new decentralised approach, which focuses on service delivery at a district level, is perfectly aligned with the objectives of this Presidential Health Compact.

The president reiterated the government's position of seeing cost of healthcare as an investment and not a burden. “A healthy population is economically productive, is industrious and is the bedrock of any country’s economic development."