Roy Watson's Column

 

‘Oligopoly’ remarks irk HASA

Remarks attributed to Board of Healthcare Funders MD, Humphrey Zokufa, in a Financial Mail report (Friday, April 3 edition) about “surging hospital costs” being the result of an “oligopoly” between the three major hospital groups, have been labeled “uninformed comment” by the Hospital Association of SA (HASA).

In the report, in which Medi-Clinic, Netcare and Life Care are mentioned, Zokufa was also quoted as saying that private hospital fees “bordered on exploitation”.

In response, HASA CEO Kurt Worrall-Clare expressed disappointment at the remarks, adding: “But with respect, we strongly disagree and believe this to be an uninformed comment. The private sector has published research on hospital costs and to date, the BHF has not taken us up on our offer to engage on issues regarding their concerns.”

Task teams to root out health problems

Removal of avoidable impediments to health care access, minimizing avoidable reversals in living standards, and generally improving the health status of all South Africans are among the objectives of a task team initiative announced by the health ministry during March.

Four task teams have been established to address finance, human resources, information and health systems, and each will have to submit their recommendations to a Ministerial Advisory Committee on Health after their specific investigations.

First task team to declare its intentions has been the finance technical task team (FTTT), which has already established that the country’s poor health outcomes, when compared to peer countries, are “unrelated to the levels of public health expenditure”.

“The big take-home message here is that money is not the problem, it has been the way it has been spent,” FTTT chairperson, Patrick Masobe, stressed when discussing his team’s priorities at an introductory meeting in early April.

Employers of unregistered practitioners, beware!

Any organization employing unregistered health care practitioners, i.e. not registered with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), and the practitioners themselves, both face severe legal action.

Issuing this warning during March – deadline month for HPCSA registration fees – registrar Adv Boyce Mkhize reiterated that non-compliance with HPCSA rules in this regard constitutes a criminal offence for both employer and employee.

“Continued employment of health care practitioners with lapsed registrations holds serious consequences for both,” Mkhize added, particularly in the event of a damages claim being instituted against the employer of an unregistered practitioner performing professional acts.

Liability in this instance would be passed jointly onto the employer and employee - including liability for criminal charges for contravention of the Health Professions Act of 1974.

Changing guard at schemes council

The Minister of Health has appointed former Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) head of research and monitoring, Patrick Matshidze, Acting Registrar of Medical Schemes – effective from March 1 2009 – until a permanent registrar is appointed “after due processes have been followed”.

This follows the resignation of founding CMS registrar, Patrick Masobe, who left the organization after nine years at its head.

According to the CMS resignation notice, Masobe will be pursuing new interests – one of which is chairing the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Health (MACH) finance technical task team. This is one of four teams constituted by the minister in March to address the country’s health problems.