The health minister was asked by the Medical Association’s Limpopo branch to address the organization’s concerns regarding the NHI.
The National Health Insurance (NHI) is not ready for the South African health system, the South African Medical Association informed health minister Dr. Joe Phaahla this week in Limpopo. The association claims that the NHI is only a funding model and does not address a number of issues, including a staffing shortage in the public health system.
“While we agree with the goals of NHI, the system is not yet ready for use. The NHI’s funding model does not provide enough money for personnel due to a shortage of human resources, according to Dr. Mvuyisi Mzukwa, the chairperson of the South African Medical Association (SAMA).
The previous health ombud, Professor Malegapuru Makgoba, also stated during the meeting that the department of health lacks capable managers and leaders to oversee NHI. According to Mzukwa, this is critical since NHI requires sound governance in addition to funding.
Is NHI Merely a Large Health Benefit?
The NHI will only be a substantial medical aid if these problems are not resolved. NHI won’t invest in infrastructure development, staffing shortages, IT shortages, or any of the numerous other health-related problems.
He claims that before the government can receive funding for the NHI, it must first adequately staff the health department. “The system is not ready; only then can the government make the private sector optional.”
SAMA is also upset that, despite the association’s involvement in the NHI from the time it was first detailed in a green paper, the department of health did not take its views into consideration. “We truly believed that the government would contact us, but it didn’t.”
Furthermore, Mzukwa claims that SAMA has made an effort to avoid politics, which is why it declined to join political parties during their anti-NHI protests.
What About Doctors Who Don’t Have Jobs?
SAMA brought up the matter of young doctors without jobs with the minister as well. “We conveyed to the minister our dissatisfaction that, despite a severe scarcity of doctors, our own South African trainees and children are not being accepted into the public health system and are being forced to either leave the country or enter the private sector.”
According to Mzukwa, hiring physicians who finished their community service last year ought to be the government’s first priority.
Then the government declares that it is insane for young doctors to work abroad in nations with national health insurance (NHI). However, there are no security concerns and far better working conditions in such nations.
What happened to the minister’s pledge that by April 1st, all of these unemployed doctors would have jobs? Mzukwa claims that Phaahla informed them during the meeting that he would meet in April with the provincial health departments to inquire about their progress in hiring back the unemployed physicians.
He believes that these claims are merely political posturing. The department also makes up the story that doctors don’t want to work in remote regions. A portion of them are from rural areas. Why wouldn’t they want to be employed there?
Dedicated Overtime and Physician Pay
SAMA also brought up the topic of committed overtime and physician wages in the public health system with the minister.
“We find it problematic that the provinces wish to handle things on their own. According to a research conducted last year, doctors’ incomes have not improved in real time, thus it will be problematic to eliminate contracted overtime. In the event that basic salaries remain unchanged, committed overtime cannot be eliminated.
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