Motsoaledi issued a statement on Tuesday conceding that the public health system was overloaded‚ with long waiting times and diminishing quality at some health facilities.
But he was at pains to emphasise that the healthcare system was still able to provide treatment to 4.2-million people with HIV‚ the largest number in the world‚ care for 300‚000 tuberculosis patients and had improved care for pregnant women with the MomConnect mobile app.
Deaths from TB had halved between 2009 and 2015‚ falling from 69‚251 to 33‚603 over the period‚ he said.
“We do not think that a collapsing or collapsed system can be able to do these [things]‚” he said. “We are very worried about extreme overcrowding in our hospitals and we believe that it could have been much worse if we did not take proactive steps.
“One of these steps was to decant patients away from the clinics and hospitals to take their medication in selected pick-up points. We have 2.2-million people on this system‚ [and] are poised to load 1-million more people on this system during this financial year.”