Apologies! It is the manner in which I have put them here. My apologies, hon Speaker, that one is still coming. I am very sorry. [Laughter.]
The improvement of the performance of provincial health departments to spend funds does not entirely rely on the implementation of the National Health Insurance, NHI. The national and provincial Departments of Health are already implementing a number of programmes and initiatives to spend funds earmarked for vital infrastructure and health care improvement.
The Department of Health is already implementing a number of concurrent interventions to improve spending on health infrastructure. These interventions include the establishment of dedicated project management support units to focus on effectively managing the spending and performance of the hospital revitalisation and health infrastructure conditional grants.
Interventions that have already borne fruit in this area include co- ordinated monitoring and proactive interventions in collaboration with the provinces through specific service level agreements and business plans. As a result, spending on the infrastructure conditional grants is definitely improving.
With regard to health care improvement, funding has been allocated as part of the equitable share to provinces. Work is under way with regard to the finalisation of the health facility audit and the determination of interventions that will be implemented for health care improvement and the overall management and functioning of health facilities.
To this end, health facility improvement teams have been established to focus on the improvement of facilities, and we will put mechanisms in place to improve quality of care and health outcomes within identified districts.
Under the NHI, it is envisaged that the improvement of the health care will be achieved through various interventions, including the accreditation of providers according to criteria set out by the Office of Health Standards Compliance. Thank you.