DA welcomes private healthcare plan

The DA has welcomed a proposal by Gauteng’s health MEC to use private hospitals to treat overflow patients from public hospitals.

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Johannesburg – The Democratic Alliance on Sunday welcomed a reported proposal by Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu to use private hospitals to treat overflow patients from public hospitals.

“This is a good idea provided it is done through proper negotiation rather than coercion. It makes sense for government to pay to use spare beds in private hospitals,” DA Gauteng MPL Jack Bloom said in a statement.

Private doctors could also be contracted to cut down the serious surgery backlogs so that patients did not wait years for certain operations, he said.

“The problem is that the Gauteng health department lacks the skills and flexibility to partner in a mutually beneficial way with the private health sector.”

This was why private GPs had been slow to participate in the district health project in Tshwane, which was a pilot for government’s proposed National Health Insurance (NHI). Payment concerns were a major reason for this failure, Bloom said.

“Netcare currently sends doctors to do surgery in the British National Health system, so a similar scheme in Gauteng could also work well.”

Mahlangu was correct to observe that 16 000 public hospital beds were inadequate to serve Gauteng’s 12 million population.

“The solution is greater efficiency in spending the R34.2 billion annual health budget, and co-operating fruitfully with the private health sector to provide a better service to the public,” Bloom said.

African News Agency