NCOP
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 475
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 21 October 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 32)
Mrs B L Abrahams (DA-Gauteng) to ask the Minister of Health:
(1) With reference to his departmentâs booklet titled, National Health
Insurance â Health Care for all South Africans (details furnished),
who is responsible for providing quality treatment in the public
sector;
(2) whether as a result of not receiving decent health care, persons are
dying, becoming disabled and living in pain; if not, what is the
position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) whether his departmentâs inability to provide decent health care has
forced persons to use private health care; if not, what is the
position in this regard; if so, what are the relevant details?
CW576E
REPLY:
1) The provision and delivery of quality health care in the public sector
is a concurrent function between the National and Provincial
Departments of Health.
2) I thought it should be very obvious that if people do not receive
decent health care, they will die, become disabled and live in peril.
3) We are worried about the quality of healthcare in the public health
sector and hence our Ten Point Programme, including the National
Health Insurance, are geared towards better quality. However, I wish
to remind the Honourable Member that the public health system, despite
its meagre resources, still takes care of 84% of the population while
the private health sector, with its massive resources, takes care of
only 16% of the population.
END.