Roy Watson's Column
No need to attack, take funding away from private sector
Because more money is expended on health care in the private sector than in the less resourced public sector “does not mean to say we are going to attack the private sector, take funding away from it”, health minister Barbara Hogan said in parliament at the beginning of February.
Speaking on the occasion of the Debate on the President’s State of the Nation Address, Hogan added that the government could not simply look at revenues gained from the national treasury to fund health alone: “We have to look at a particular form of a national health insurance (NHI), to see how we can increase the envelope for funding in health. And that will be the subject, Mr President, of a long conversation in our country.”
Adding that the NHI “is not going to be something that we are just simply going to impose”, Hogan said her department looked forward to assistance from private sector stakeholders to explain ways in which they can assist to achieve the targets required.
All practices could be subject to RPL verification
All practices involved in making submissions for the 2010 Reference Price List could be subject to a verification process, Dr Anban Pillay, Department of Health Financial Planning and Economics cluster manager, told stakeholder representatives at the cluster’s 2010 RPL briefing session in Pretoria early February.
“Everyone who provides information is subject to verification and the reason I want to stress this point here,” said Pillay, “is because in the past some providers have expressed surprise when approached by us for verification.”
He acknowledged that there were concerns about confidentiality in terms of the information being submitted. Among the assurances he gave in this regard was that KPMG, the financial consulting group engaged by the DoH to conduct the process, “is a credible company with its own high ethical standards”.
Letlape and SAMA part ways
Following discussions on a vote of no confidence by the SA Medical Association (SAMA) board of directors, Dr Kgosi Letlape has resigned as SAMA chairman after more than eight years in the seat.
His resignation was accepted at a special National Council meeting on January 30, at which it was announced that SAMA vice-chairman Prof Denise White would assume the chair until the next election scheduled to be held at the end of August 2009.
In subsequent media reports, Letlape, who is an ophthalmologist in private practice, was quoted as saying that he was driven out by specialists who considered him to be "anti-private practice" because he is opposed to medical schemes.
His critics, it was also reported, said Letlape was elected to represent the interests of private as well as public doctors, but instead alienated them by speaking against those interests. Towards the end of last year, a group of SAMA specialists broke away from the association to establish their own forum partially for these reasons.
Pharmacists, minister make peace
The Pharmacy Stakeholders Forum (PSF), after meeting with health minister, Barbara Hogan, to discuss the dispensing fee for pharmacists, decided that the court case scheduled for February 23 to 25 to thrash out the issue, be postponed indefinitely.
This follows the dispensing doctor group, the National Convention on Dispensing (NCD), taking a similar decision earlier in the month.
The PSF, which comprises six groups – including the PSSA and USAP, and representing more than 80% of the country’s pharmacists - and the minister agreed that it is in the best interest of all concerned, including the public, to resolve the matter amicably.
All parties agreed that medicines must be affordable and accessible to consumers. Ivan Kotzé, co-ordinator of the PSF, added that it was also important to ensure that the entire medicines distribution chain, including community pharmacies, remain viable so that they can continue supplying medicine to the public.
