Prominent players in South Africa’s private healthcare industry have called for the government to extend its collaborative efforts with businesses to include health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is a so-called ‘high road’ solution to the impasse over the contentious National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, which is facing ‘low road’ legal challenges that threaten to keep the policy hung up in litigation for the next decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Proponents of the ‘high road’ solution say that a public-private collaborative effort could resolve some of the most pressing issues plaguing the country’s public healthcare system, including funding and investment challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is particularly prevalent as of the 3,092 public healthcare facilities inspected by the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) only 1,226 or 39.65% comply with the legislated standards, as recently revealed<\/strong><\/a> by Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The ‘high road’ is already a well-travelled path in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023, organised business (comprising about 150 of South Africa’s top CEOs) pledged support to the government to revive a flatlining economy, offering expertise and capital to fix the country\u2019s problems in three key areas: electricity, transport and logistics, and crime and corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Phase 1, businesses contributed over R250 million in direct funding, deployed 350+ experts, and engaged 57 companies in power station interventions, totalling 9,000 hours to assist Eskom, which helped significantly reduce load shedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally, R700 million was invested in transport corridors, 500 security personnel were assigned to Transnet Freight Rail, cutting security incidents by 50%, and R57 million was allocated to establish a forensic analysis centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commitments were recently re-affirmed for South Africa’s new administration, known as ‘Phase 2’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n