Slow roll-out of National Health Insurance due to lack of funds - ANC

A lack of funding has slowed down the roll-out of the National Health Insurance, the ANC said on Sunday.

Presenting a report on basic education, higher education, health and science and technology, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said the committee looking into the NHI had reported on its performance with respect to the resolutions adopted by the ANC at the Mangaung conference.

She said while the party had acted on the majority of the resolutions, there were a few outstanding matters.

"A strong recommendation was made on the urgent need to... finalise the National Health Insurance.

"It was their [delegates'] view that treasury should be encouraged strongly to ensure that resources are available and that NHI financing was finalised so that the NHI white paper can be put into the public domain."

Pandor said delegates expressed their support for the progress seen in NHI pilot sites.

"There was also a strong call on the expansion of medical student numbers. It was felt that we do not have enough doctors, particularly in the rural areas."

She said the matter of nursing colleges needed to be addressed by the ANC.

Nursing colleges needed to be reopened - not at university level but in the college sector - and more nurses trained.

"It was felt that the curriculum had become bureaucratic and nurses were not prepared to implement patient care," Pandor said.

Source: News24