The Department of Health (DoH) measured the capacity of the Public Health Care (PHC) clinics in the NHI pilot districts by visiting the facilities and assessing infrastructure, personnel, equipment, access to drugs, and other system processes. In total, there are 764 PHC facilities in 11 pilot districts.
"We know that government is a work in progress. The question is to find out whether the Department thinks it [the NHI scheme] is going to work or not. If it is going to work, which areas we need to concentrate on, and if it is not going to work, we need to conduct means in the direction of progress," said Dr Bevan Goqwana, Chairperson of the Committee.
One problem in the pilot districts was a scarcity of general practitioners (GPs). According to the Director-General of the National Department of Health, Ms Malebona Matsoso, the solution to this problem is to outsource to the private sector.
Having assessed the NHI facilities, The DoH established that sufficient work space needed to be secured before GPs could be contracted, as working in a crowded room would not be ideal. "Let us not swing into the recruitment drive for doctors, whom we do not have and some are in training, but rather go to the private sector to render the service," Ms Matsoso added.
Ms Denise Roberson, member of the Committee, said: "It is good to see that the monitoring is taking place so we can establish where the shortfalls and shortcomings are. I think we are all aware that this is a major task and if we have so many problems just on the pilot sites, how are we going to be able to roll it out?"
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