Hon Speaker, to hon Mkhaliphi, what I have been saying about the benefits of the National Health Insurance is meant to precisely address the challenges that you are talking about. For starters, the economic recovery stimulus package that we announced is meant to address the issue of the shortage of staff; doctors, nurse and dentists.
Admittedly, we may not be able to employ all those various thousands that we need this year, but on an ongoing basis as the fund is set up and the process moves on we will be able to employ professionals and workers that we need in our hospitals.
The compact that we signed, and I would like members to familiarise themselves with it, addresses precisely all these issues including the issue of infrastructure rollout to ensure that we have functioning clinics and hospitals that have access to electricity, water, and good management systems. This is going to be possible once we kick start the NHI to ensure that we have the funding and the determination.
Some of this will be done on a programmatic basis where we will be able to see progress as we move on. We are under no illusion that the NHI is going to be the immediate panacea to all the challenges we face in health care. It is going to be a long process but we are committed to embarking on this journey to improve our national health care system and we will be improving infrastructure as well. Thank you, hon Speaker. [Applause.]
Question 5: