South Africa's public health system not collapsing or in crisis

24 May 2009

The public health system in South Africa continues to function and provide health care to millions in the country despite the many challenges it is faced with, said the Department of Health in response to the lead story in one of the country's weekly newspapers today.

Contrary to what the story seeks to project, the public health system in South Africa continues to function and provide health care to millions who need such services. The Department of Health has on numerous occasions acknowledged the many challenges facing the country's public health system and its plans to address them. Apart from the issues of remuneration, ageing infrastructure and general management challenges including financial management are among the challenges that continue to hamper the public health system in South Africa. Of importance to note however is the amount of work that is being done to address these challenges as demonstrated amongst others by:

• The implementation of the Occupation Specific Dispensation for nurses in 2007 as part of a plan to attract more nurses into the sector and retain. Despite the implementation and teething challenges that were encountered, the tide is beginning to turn with more nurses re-joining the public sector. A decision was made to start with this sector of health care workers given the extent to which they were being lost to the private health sector and over-seas countries.
• The current negotiations in the Bargaining Council to agree on a similar OSD regime to cater for Doctors, Dentists, Pharmacists and Emergency Medical personnel. Apart from remuneration, the OSD for this category of professionals will also address issues of career progression and performance management amongst others so that good performers are recognised and rewarded accordingly.
• The current hospital revitalisation programme that is geared at building new infrastructure and rehabilitating existing facilities. In the current financial year for instance - 2009/2010, about R3 billion is set to be spent for this purpose, with the budget increasing to R4,1billion in the 2011/2012 financial year.
• Progress on the Quality Improvement initiatives that address amongst others: Patient experience of care; Clinical Care; Waste management; and Patient and Staff Safety amongst others.

All of these measures are in a basket of interventions required to improve the performance of the public health system in our country, contrary to a one-dimensional view that suggests otherwise.

The country has about 386 hospitals and 3500 clinics that perform at varying levels of satisfaction and the new Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has expressed his commitment to addressing many of these problems which largely have to do with financial and human resources management amongst others. To suggest that the public health system is collapsing or in a crisis is alarmist at this stage!

Issued by the Department of Health

For more information please contact Fidel Hadebe on 012 312-0663 or 079 517-3333.