During the debate on the Health Budget Vote in the National Assembly, the Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, stated that only when South Africans enjoy the health dividends of democracy through the provisions enshrined in the Constitution will we be able to say our work is done and Oliver Tambo has been honoured.
He went on to state that the Bill of Rights in Section 27 of the Constitution states unequivocally that healthcare is a right. “Subsection (2) then goes on to say: The State must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights. And subsection (3) says: No one may be refused emergency medical treatment.”
The most important aspects of these provisions, he said, have not yet been operationalised. “The time has now eventually arrived for us to do so. In the second phase of our transition to democracy, the phase of radical economic transformation, we have no option but to do so.”
“It is for this very reason that we have no option but to implement the United Nations programme of universal health coverage, which in South Africa we call the National Health Insurance (NHI),” he said.
“To those not yet fully initiated, we define NHI as a health financing system that pools funds to provide access to quality health services for all South Africans, based on their health needs and irrespective of their socio-economic status.”
Dr Wilmot James of the Democratic Alliance said that priority must be given to building a highly effective primary health care system that responds to those who are vulnerable to illness and disease.
South Africa lives with the world’s biggest epidemic of HIV/Aids, a preventable disease that brought widespread death, extraordinary misery and great hardship to the people. “The reason for this calamity is the failure of political and moral leadership to promote responsible safe-sex practices under circumstances where a vaccine was, still is and likely will be unavailable for a while,” Dr James said.
The Minister’s focus is more on the money, he is nor focusing on the management of clinics, said Dr James. “But the Honourable Minister is not focused on management. He is running out of doctors and nurses. The average quality of hospitals is shocking. We have enough clinics in our country but can only staff half of them properly. Bad governance and mismanagement is why the Esidimeni tragedy happened.”
Whilst we support the ideology and morality behind the push for universal healthcare, we have our own reservations, said Ms Dierdre Carter representing the Congress of the People. “The National Health Insurance model currently being pursued by the ANC is unaffordable and too dependent on high economic growth levels we do not have.”
What is urgently required is a back-to-basics approach, she added. “A far worse and more heinous and immoral crisis exists within many of our provincial departments of health in respect of their failings and in many instances unacceptable and inhumane delivery and non-delivery of a basic and fundamental service.”
Good quality healthcare is a fundamental right of every citizen, hence we support this budget vote, but we do so with reservations, said Mr Ahmed Shaik Emam of the National Freedom Party. “The NFP wishes to express its concern that whilst South Africans continue to be deprived of good quality health care, the 4.5 % increase in the budget provided for this purpose is clearly insufficient. Unless addressed and more resources made available, our country will be faced with catastrophic consequences.”
We are losing the fight against cancer, warned the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Ms Sibongile Nkomo. Cancer is now responsible for more deaths every year than Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined. “It is a dread disease that demands our fullest attention.”
Responding to that, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, said the ministry is reviewing the impact and shortcomings of policy on non-communicable diseases (NCDS). This process will inform a new strategy that will be launched in 2018. “…to increase awareness in society about NCDS and measures to prevent them; to increase access to screening opportunities for early detection; and to maximise access to effective, efficient and affordable means of treatment.”
We aspire for a high-performing public health system that ameliorates health disparities and provides quality health care. Unfortunately South Africa is very far from achieving these ideals, said the Economic Freedom Fighter’s Dr Suzanne Thembekwayo.“Our public sector is littered with examples of poor leadership and neglect of the public health sector lead to an increase in preventable deaths amongst the poorest and most vulnerable of our people.”
Abel Mputing
17 May 2017
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