Money crisis for hospitals and staff highlights NHI folly – Solidarity – POLITICS

The Gauteng Health Department’s budget deficit that hampers the construction of new hospitals is clear evidence of the government’s inability to plan for healthcare.

Solidarity believes there can no longer be any doubt in anyone’s mind about the South African government’s inability to manage an even more extensive public healthcare system. This is because even the current system is collapsing due to lack of planning.

Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), says what the Department of Health and the provincial departments are experiencing now is just the realisation of a reality that they have denied for far too long.

“There is no money for new hospitals, and there is no money to renovate the old hospitals. Without these hospitals, the National Health Insurance (NHI) will not be viable, and even if the institutions were built and renovated, there would also be no money to implement and manage the NHI.