Speaker, to Mr President, the public health care system is in disarray. Only last year the department was short of over 18 000 nurses, 2 250 doctors and 150 dentists. In the Eastern Cape alone there were 110 health facilities, that is clinics and hospitals, which were without electricity.
The rollout of the NHI will be meaningless and will only amount to posturing if it is not preceded by a massive investment in public health infrastructural development, in employment and the retraining of medical practitioners. Now, Mr President, what is your government doing to resolve this crisis in public health care?