AHMED BANDERKER: Healthcare is still a budget priority

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The progress towards achieving universal health coverage needs to remain on track

As finance minister Enoch Godongwana took to the podium for this year’s budget address I knew healthcare would not take centre stage. The minister had to contend with a multitude of issues, chief among them being the worst energy crisis our nation has ever faced.

We all know public healthcare has been struggling to keep up with infrastructure decay, capacity issues and skills shortages. It is optimistic that this fund allocation will help address service backlogs and alleviate critical funding pressures in healthcare personnel, medicine, laboratory services, medical supplies and other vital goods and services.

The department also manages the national health insurance indirect grant, which has three components and a budget of R6.9bn over the medium term:personal services component of R2bn over the next three years supports activities aimed at strengthening the health system, such as health information systems, quality improvement initiatives and the dispensing and distribution of chronic medicines.

I’m pleased to see the additional commitment to help provinces deal with the accumulated backlog in core health services such as surgery, oncology, antiretroviral treatment and tuberculosis screening and treatment that resulted from disruptions to routine healthcare services due to the pandemic. Last year I commented that the minister never mentioned the NHI in the 2022 budget address. This year the minister followed the same brief, though how could we blame him given the prominence of the energy crisis?

 

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