NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO. 3171
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 21 October 2011
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 33)
Mr M Waters (DA) to ask the Minister of Health:
Whether studies have been conducted to establish whether the private health
sector is directly taking resources away from the public health sector; if
not, on what evidence was this stated in the National Health Insurance
Green Paper based; if so, (a) who conducted the studies and (b) what were
the findings?
NW3527E
REPLY:
The Department of Health is not aware of any such studies being conducted.
However, analyses have been undertaken in the past by the Health Economics
Unit at the University of Cape Town where it was shown that the number of
key health professionals such as specialists, doctors, pharmacists and
nurses to patients served were significantly higher in the private health
sector compared to those in the public sector. The gap in the number of
providers to patients has relatively improved in the past 5 years as a
result of some key interventions by the Department. Nonetheless the
disparities remain large and are a reflection of the fragmentation and
resource inequities between the two sectors.
END.