by Dumani Kula | Business Times | 3 August 2025
Amidst a backdrop of global turmoil and domestic uncertainty, South Africa stands at a critical crossroads, with its healthcare system facing a crisis that demands immediate and decisive action. While long-term policy solutions like the National Health Insurance (NHI) offer a vision for the future, the daily struggles of ordinary people highlight the urgent need for solutions today. This healthcare crisis demands attention and action without delay.
In a nation grappling with the tangible effects of international conflicts and deep-seated local problems, our national dialogue has rightly shifted toward finding sustainable solutions. Yet, as interventions fail to produce the desired outcomes, a sense of losing ground pervades, particularly in terms of addressing the urgent healthcare crisis faced by millions.
A System Divided: The Strain on Public and Private Healthcare
South Africans currently navigate a fractured healthcare landscape. On one side, the public healthcare system is in a state of ongoing recovery, grappling with significant backlogs and unable to consistently meet the needs and expectations of its citizens, highlighting the healthcare crisis affecting the nation.
On the other hand, the private healthcare system is becoming a luxury that fewer can afford. Stagnant growth in medical aid membership over the past decade, coupled with premiums that consistently outpace inflation, means that even those who previously enjoyed private care are being priced out. This signifies a healthcare crisis, with two parallel systems both buckling under the pressure and failing to provide comprehensive care for millions.
The Human Cost of a Healthcare Crisis
Behind the stark headlines and economic data are the real-life stories of South Africans. They are breadwinners unable to work due to preventable health issues, turning medical problems into financial crises for their families. The healthcare crisis forces the elderly into dependency on their grandchildren, affecting a new generation’s development.
This cascade of personal hardship places an ever-increasing burden on state resources, which in turn demands more from every citizen. Fixing our healthcare system amidst this widespread healthcare crisis is therefore an urgent imperative to save countless individuals from unnecessary suffering, financial ruin, and preventable death.
NHI: A Vision for the Future, A Challenge for Today
The move towards a National Health Insurance (NHI) system is driven by the noble goal of universal health coverage, ensuring everyone can access the care they need, when they need it, without financial hardship. However, while we build consensus and navigate the complexities of its implementation, we cannot afford to wait. The anguish of people today, amplified by the ongoing healthcare crisis, requires action.
The prosperity of our communities and our economy is inextricably linked to the health and well-being of our people. The healthcare crisis underscores the urgency of serving the collective good to achieve true value for shareholders and society.
This is not merely a theoretical concept. The expertise and resources to make a difference exist right now, across both the public and private sectors. The solution lies in harnessing this collective power to address the healthcare crisis effectively.
Many organisations have already demonstrated the success of this model. Through strategic partnerships with provincial governments, dedicated clinicians, corporations, and NGOs, they have progressively extended life-saving private care to uninsured individuals who would otherwise have no access. These collaborations prove that we do not have to wait for future policy to be perfected amidst a healthcare crisis.
Our institutional mandates must serve the people’s interests first and foremost. We already have the power and the means to deliver better health outcomes for all. South Africans should not have to wait for future-dated policy interventions to get the care they desperately need now.
Let’s act with urgency. Let’s do it together.
- Kula is the CEO of the Busamed private hospital group.
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by Tamar Kahn | Business Day | 31 July 2025
An explosive investigation by the Health Ombud has uncovered a litany of catastrophic failures and lethal neglect at the Northern Cape Mental Health Hospital. The hospital staff left patients in dangerously cold conditions without electricity. These conditions led to at least two deaths and caused severe harm to others.
Following a complaint from Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi in October 2024, Health Ombud Professor Taole Mokoena initiated an investigation and released the damning report.. It paints a grim picture of a facility in a state of near-total collapse. Junior staff supervised vulnerable patients in a facility that lacked basic utilities.. All this led to widespread lethal neglect.
The investigation focused on the period from July to August 2024, the heart of winter. During this time, temperatures in Kimberley frequently plummet below freezing. The hospital had been without mains electricity for over two years. This resulted from cable theft and vandalism at a nearby substation in 2022.
While private facilities in the area restored power within days, the report slams “dysfunctional supply chain management processes”. It identifies lethal neglect within the provincial health department for leaving the hospital powerless. A single generator was unable to service large parts of the building. This situation rendered heating systems and critical medical equipment useless.
A Catalogue of Failures Uncovered
Professor Mokoena’s findings describe a horror scene within the hospital, which only opened in 2019. Nurses resorted to using their mobile phones as torches to navigate darkened wards. Management left broken windows unrepaired and the security doors non-functional, while sewage was reportedly seeping from shower drains.
The ombud found that pyjamas and bedding procured for patients were “thin, of poor quality and wholly inadequate for winter conditions”.
The facility was also critically understaffed, with only 323 of its 593 positions filled. This resulted in underqualified enrolled nurses and nursing assistants being unlawfully placed in charge of entire wards. These problems can be described as lethal neglect.
Systemic Collapse and Calls for Accountability
The investigation also unearthed shocking procurement irregularities. The provincial health department had reportedly procured a range of equipment not required by the hospital. This included items like golf carts and specialised beds. Meanwhile, they failed to provide the essentials.
The ombud has recommended that the Health Department launch a full forensic investigation into the procurement processes for the hospital. He also called for disciplinary action to be taken against several state employees. This includes the provincial supply chain manager due to lethal neglect.
Reacting to the findings, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi said the report revealed extensive management failures across the board.
He said if he were a physician and were to make a diagnosis, he would diagnose multi-system organ failure.
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by Phathu Luvhengo | TimesLIVE | 31 July 2025
Public and private sector nurses from across the SADC region are gathered in Boksburg this week for the Fifth African Nursing Conference. This conference provides a critical platform aimed at bridging divides. It also focuses on forging a united path towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the era of National Health Insurance (NHI).
The African Nursing Conference is focused on fostering mutual understanding and collaboration between the two often-siloed sectors of the healthcare system.
According to Dr Tracey de Klerk, chair of the Gauteng Department of Health, the conference addresses a persistent demand from practitioners in both sectors. They want to learn more about each other’s worlds, especially during the African Nursing Conference.
She said that for the past two conferences, there were many requests for the public to know more about private. Likewise, the private sector wanted to know more about public. This is especially relevant with the word NHI and people not understanding that NHI is a fund. Moreover, we are looking at universal health coverage.
De Klerk stressed that achieving the nation’s healthcare goals requires collaboration, not competition. This is underscored at the African Nursing Conference, which seeks to promote a collaborative spirit.
Nurses as the ‘Backbone’ of Universal Healthcare
Speakers at the event have been unequivocal about the central role of nurses in the success of the NHI. The NHI is a funding model designed to facilitate UHC as promoted by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Sonwabo Lindani, acting chief director of the Sedibeng District, put it bluntly: “No nurses, no NHI.”
He highlighted the paradox of having many unemployed nurses while the system is in dire need of their skills. This point was highlighted in the talks at the African Nursing Conference. The core purpose of the NHI, he argued, is to capacitate the system to hire these professionals. It also aims to make healthcare accessible to all, regardless of financial status.
Confronting the Challenges of Staffing and Infrastructure
While the spirit of the conference is one of optimism and collaboration, delegates are not shying away from the significant hurdles that lie ahead.
Speakers acknowledged the pressing challenges facing the health system, including chronic staff shortages and dilapidated infrastructure.
The conference serves as a vital forum for sharing best practices and consolidating ideas. It ensures that as South Africa moves forward with the NHI, its most critical resource – its nurses – are at the heart of the plan. The African Nursing Conference is essential in making this collaboration effective.
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by Oratile Mashilo | The Citizen | 30 July 2025
South Africans are living significantly longer lives. The national life expectancy at birth has surged by an impressive 12 years since the turn of the century, according to new data. This improvement highlights major advances in public health, particularly in the fight against HIV. Furthermore, it reflects an overall enhancement of living conditions across the nation, as shown by the SA life expectancy statistics.
by healthmatters
Academics from the University of Cape Town (UCT) are championing the greater use of health taxes on products like tobacco, alcohol, and soft drinks. Experts see these taxes as a powerful dual-purpose tool for African nations. A new report argues that such measures, often referred to as sin taxes, can significantly curb consumption. They can reduce premature deaths and illnesses, generating much-needed revenue for strained healthcare systems.
