The health-care industry in South Africa is in a similar position to commercial farming in Zimbabwe, the Board of Healthcare Funders annual conference was told on Monday.
Clem Sunter, of the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund, told the conference: ”We need to predict the scenarios and options available to move towards positive choices and must avoid the repercussions of confrontation to choose rational debate.”
Sunter said private health care in South Africa is at present ”exclusive and efficient”, meaning that only a small percentage of the population receives efficient health care.
Most other countries offer inefficient services to a similar small sector, and none to the majority. A few, like Romania, offer inefficient services to all. The ideal to strive for is to offer efficient services to the whole population, Sumter said.
He cautioned that ”this debate is being engaged against a backdrop of what can effectively be considered war — a war against a miniature weapon of mass destruction: Aids”.
The unusually high attendance at the conference showed awareness of the challenges facing the sector, said the board’s spokesperson, Heidi Kruger.
Kruger said delegates then debated issues such as affordability and access. She said many delegates had difficulty divorcing themselves from sectoral concerns to appreciate the broader context.
Profits and whether they were excessive or justified also ”raised temperatures”.
Kruger said it was generally agreed that the private sector has to engage more extensively with the public sector, in private partnerships and especially through the recently established Private Healthcare Forum, which represents both funders and providers.
Cooperation between private stakeholders and the Department of Health is ”vital to the success of the industry”.
Delegates applauded an impassioned statement that South Africa has the resources and expertise to find solutions, much as the country has negotiated its democratic process. All that is needed is the good will for a proper balance to be found between regulation and fair competition.
The need for a health charter was stressed to deal with issues such as ownership, equity and transformation. — Sapa
The Board of Healthcare Funders is an association representing the interests of medical schemes and their members.