Below are extracts from a blog by the Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation, Michael Myers.

https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/blog/health-whats-next-movement-hitting-stride/

‘If the events of 2016 have taught us anything, it’s that we cannot know for sure what tomorrow will bring. But change has a way of illuminating those things about which we are certain. As a new year dawns, my conviction that every country can and must accelerate progress toward universal health coverage has never been stronger…

‘What can be done?

‘Build Country Capacity: We’ve entered a new era of health and development where countries that were traditionally recipients of aid are creating their own paths toward universal health coverage. If we’re serious about achieving UHC and reducing out-of-pocket payments in the long run, we need to support countries at every income level to find ways to increase domestic public health budgets. An example of work at this level is the Joint Learning Network for UHC, which The Rockefeller Foundation helped establish, in which today 27 countries are working together in the hard work of building and strengthening their health systems to assist all of their citizens.  And more countries are joining each year.

‘Focus on the Intersections: Universal health coverage is inherently cross-cutting—it impacts (and is impacted by) economic opportunity, the environment, gender equity and so much more. That’s why we need to place a greater emphasis on the intersections of UHC: how it builds resilience against climate threats, how the private sector can contribute, how overlapping efforts—like work to expand access to primary health care—can be harnessed to help us achieve our shared goal.

‘Get Serious about Accountability: We’ve set the stage for meaningful UHC measurement by advocating for a strong SDG indicator 3.8.2 and the establishment of the International Health Partnership for UHC 2030. Now we need to execute. This starts by asking the tough questions: Are we truly reaching everyone, everywhere, with the quality, affordable health services they need and deserve? Are we keeping people healthy in the first place? If not, what can we do to change course? Strong measurement tools and communication across efforts will allow us to expand basic, essential health services to the 400 million people who currently lack them. We can and must do better.’

—

Best wishes, neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org  

WHO has launched a new data portal to track global access to universal health coverage:

http://apps.who.int/gho/cabinet/uhc.jsp

Below is a press release from the United Nations website:

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=55784#.WFAhqbKLS9I

12 December 2016 – Marking Universal Health Coverage Day, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a new data portal to track global access to universal health coverage, including information about equity of access and where services need to be improved.

The portal aggregates the latest data on universal health coverage for all of WHO’s 194 Member States. Next year, the portal will feature the impact of paying for health services on household finances.

“Any country seeking to achieve UHC must be able to measure it,” said the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, in a news release. “Data on its own won’t prevent disease or save lives, but it shows where governments need to act to strengthen their health systems and protect people from the potentially devastating effects of health care costs.”

The purpose of universal health coverage is to ensure that all people have the means to secure their right to health without financial hardship. This means that countries must build a health infrastructure system that supports readily available, quality services and products through an experienced workforce.

According to the portal, fewer than 50 per cent of children diagnosed with pneumonia are taken to a health care provider. 44 per cent of WHO’s Member States have less than 1 physician per 1000 people. While Africans suffer from 25 per cent of global diseases, the continent has only 3 per cent of the world’s health workers.

Universal health coverage is foundational to the success of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 3, which aims to secure the health and wellbeing of every individual.

“Expanding access to services will involve increasing spending for most countries,” announced Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation. “But as important as what is spent is how it’s spent. All countries can make progress towards universal health coverage, even at low spending levels.”

Worldwide, at least 400 million people are without access to essential health services. Every year, 100 million fall into poverty and 150 million suffer “financial catastrophe” due to out-of-pocket costs for health care.

As part of the SDGs, all WHO Member States have agreed to achieve universal health coverage by 2030. In order to make this objective a reality, more than 18 million new health workers will be needed by 2030 in order to meet the growing demand, particularly in low and lower-middle income countries.

—

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org  

Dear dr. Martin Ekeke, Dear Friends at the First Regional Forum on Strengthening Health Systems for the SDGs and UHC: Healthy Systems, Healthy People in Windhoek Namibia,

We want to bring you a contribution from The Primary Health Care Family Medicine Network in Africa. The African continent suffers a very high burden of disease and only a marginal workforce of health workers available, resulting in difficult access to care, fragmented care, lack of infrastructure and technology and poor health systems. The World Health Report 2008: “Primary health care: now more than ever!” emphasizes the importance of strengthening primary care in addressing these health challenges. Evidence from WHO shows that strengthening primary health care is an important strategy to address inequities in health. In the recent report by the high-level commission on Health Employment and Economic growth: “Working for health and growth: investing in the health workforce”, the importance of investing in primary care workforce is stressed once again.

Primafamed (Primary Health Care & Family Medicine Network)(www.primafamed.ugent.be) is an international network active in the field of research, service delivery and capacity building in primary health care in Africa, committed to universal health coverage and addressing the challenges described above, since its conception in 1997. The Network subscribes to the SDG. In 1997 the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care of Ghent University became a partner in the “South-African Family Medicine Educational Consortium”, an interuniversity cooperation in the field of postgraduate training of family physicians. Later on a “twinning-strategy” was developed, twinning each of the 8 South-African departments of family medicine with another African country, to train family physicians.  In addition to capacity building, Primafamed incorporated a focus on service delivery and research, with the creation of the “African Journal for Primary Health Care and Family Medicine” (www.phcfm.org).

In the meantime, research projects on the concept and implementation of family medicine in Africa were developed, resulting in a “Consensus Statement of on Family Medicine” (see attachment [*]). In 2012, at the 5th Primafamed workshop in Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe), a strategy was adopted to scale up family medicine and primary health care in Africa integrating education, research and services delivery, and with special emphasis on development of primary care oriented health systems (see attachment [*]). Thanks to a wide variety of funding sources over the years (Belgian VLIR-UOS- Own Initiatives 2003-2006-2009; VLIR-INC; ACP-EU-Cooperation Programme in Higher Education-Edulink; EU-FP7-HURAPRIM;…) Primafamed grew and consolidated into an international network, including institutions in Europe (Denmark, U.K,…)and Africa (South-Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, DRC, Ruanda, Uganda,…).  It is this consortium of committed partners that has often worked together in the past and have proven their scientific capacity, and their contribution to universal health coverage through concrete actions in the pedagogical field (e.g. curriculum development, improvement of training programs, appropriate skills training) and in the area of development of research capacity, as well as working at the “health system” level.

At this moment, based on the experience of the PRIMAFAMED-Network, we would like to suggest the following strategies to the First Regional Forum on Strengthening Health Systems for the SDGs and UHC: Healthy Systems, Healthy People in Namibia:

1. According to the Abuja Declaration African countries should invest 15% of the public spending in health care in order to address the actual challenges of infectious diseases and chronic conditions, especially multi-morbidity.

2. African countries should double the percentage of their public health spending, that is invested in primary health care, in order to strengthen primary health care systems, as there is clear evidence that strong primary health care systems have an essential role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and contribute to universal health coverage.

3. Actually there is an important input of resources by international donor organizations like USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Fund, Danida,… through vertical disease-oriented programs. As was already asked by the campaign “15by2015”, launched in March 2008 (see article in BMJ 8 March 2008), that donors that invest in vertical disease oriented programs (HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis,…) should invest by 2020 20% of the resources of their investment in these vertical programs, in strengthening local primary health care systems. By doing so, they put into practice the recommendation by the World Health Assembly 2009 (WHA62.12), that “… vertical disease oriented programs should be integrated and implemented in the framework of integrated primary health care systems”. By doing so, the campaign “15by2015”, could be followed-up by a campaign “20by2020”.

4. National Ministers of Health should formally recognize the discipline of family medicine operating in the primary health care system (already of lot of countries did so), and should define the role of family medicine in the framework of the primary health care team and provide financing in order to create posts for family physicians in the framework of primary health care teams. In annex, the “Consensus Statement of Family Medicine in Africa” gives a clear picture of how this could happen.

5. There is an urgent need to scale up the capacity in family medicine and primary health care in Africa. According to the “Vic Falls Declaration” (see attachment), at least 40% of the students finishing undergraduate medical training, should start a post-graduate training in family medicine in order to strengthen primary health care teams. One of the strategies to make this happen is to increase the early exposure in undergraduate curriculum of all medical students to primary health care settings and family medicine practice.

6. All stakeholders involved at national provincial and local level should invest in strengthening the primary health care team, including strengthening the cooperation between nurses, family physicians, midwifes, social workers, community health workers in the context of primary health care centers and ­ where needed ­ in the framework of district health hospitals.

7. In order to address the problem of brain-drain there should be an appeal to the receiving (Western) countries’ governments that receive health care providers who are trained in Africa and integrate them in their (Western) health system, that the receiving governments, reimburse the full cost of the training of such a health care provider in their own country, to the country where the provider has been trained. This would contribute to more equity in availability of health care providers worldwide.

The Primafamed-Network, in cooperation with other stakeholders, that may support these strategies, is willing to cooperate to these Developments. Can this document and annexes immediately be made available to the participants at the First Regional Forum in Windhoek.

Looking forward to your reaction, Prof Jan De Maeseneer Primafamed Network

Director International Centre for Primary Health Care and Family Medicine ­ Ghent University, WHO Collaborating Centre on PHC.

HIFA profile: Jan De Maeseneer is Secretary General of the Network Towards Unity for Health. The Network: TUFH is a global association of individuals, groups, institutions and organisations committed to improving and maintaining health in the communities they have a mandate to serve. The Network: TUFH is a Non-Governmental Organisation in official relationships with the World Health Organization (WHO). Jan is a working family physician (part time) in the Community Health Centre Ledeberg-Ghent (Belgium). He is Head of Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care of Ghent University (Belgium). He is the Chairman of the European Forum for Primary Care:        www.euprimarycare.org  

www.the-networktufh.org         jan.demaeseneer AT UGent.be

[*Note from HIFA moderator (Neil PW): Thank you Jan, I look forward to comments fro other HIFA members. The original message carried attachments but HIFA does not carry attachments. Please contact Jan for further details]

The European Forum For Primary Care invites you to the webinar: Working together towards Integrated Primary Care. This webinar represents a great opportunity to witness an interview between two influential primary care leaders Jan De Maeseneer and Sally Kendall (actual and future elected chairman of the European Forum For Primary Care) that will drive the audience towards a journey in their careers and will raise the importance of primary care and the challenges of integrated care for shaping the future at a global level.

Primary care is the first level of professional care in Europe, where people present their health problems and where the majority of the population’s curative and preventive health needs are satisfied. It is widely believed that a well-developed system of primary care has beneficial effects on the health care system as a whole. As a consequence, systems with a strong primary care level appear to be better able to control costs and have better health outcomes.

However, a growing and changing society, financial constraints, changing health threats, workforce developments and technological advantages, have bring new and different challenges for healthcare systems in Europe,  including primary care. Jan and Sally will exchange reflections and values on primary care from a personalized view to the system.

Date : 10 January,2017 (12.30 P.M C.E.T)

Registration : info@euprimarycare.org (max 100 participants)

More information : www.euprimarycare.org

HIFA profile: Diana Castro Sandoval is Junior Project Coordinator at the European Forum For Primary Care in the Netherlands. Professional interests: Be updated within different healthcare initiatives around the world and look for interesting projects, possible partnerships and collaborations to raise awareness of different healthcare issues.  d.castrosandoval AT euprimarycare.org

This open-access paper looks at perceptions of men in South Africa around illness and HIV, and consequent fears about HIV counselling and testing.  

CITATION: Development of a National Campaign Addressing South African Men’s Fears About HIV Counseling and Testing and Antiretroviral Treatment

Orr N1, Hajiyiannis H, Myers L, et a. Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (January 2017), 74 Suppl 6:S69-S73.

View Abstract: http://journals.lww.com/jaids/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2017&issue=01011&article=00010&type=abstract

INTRODUCTION: South African men are less likely to get tested for HIV than women and are more likely to commence antiretroviral treatment (ART) at later stages of disease, default on treatment, and to die from AIDS compared with women. The purpose of this study was to conduct formative research into the ideational and behavioral factors that enable or create obstacles to mens’ uptake of HIV counseling and testing (HCT) and ART. The study consulted men with a goal of developing a communication campaign aimed at improving the uptake of HIV testing and ART initiation among men.

METHODS: Eleven focus groups and 9 in-depth interviews were conducted with 97 male participants in 6 priority districts in 4 South African provinces in rural, peri-urban, and urban localities.

RESULTS: Fears of compromised masculine pride and reputation, potential community rejection, and fear of loss of emotional control (“the stress of knowing”) dominated men’s rationales for avoiding HIV testing and treatment initiation.

CONCLUSIONS: A communication campaign was developed based on the findings. Creative treatments aimed at redefining a ‘strong’ man as someone who faces his fears and knows his HIV status. The resultant campaign concept was: “positive or negative-you are still the same person.”

SELECTED EXTRACTS:

Men’s work-related mobility, lower perceptions of HIV risk compared with women, fear of stigma, and rejection by communities because of being seen standing in queues at health centers, lack of trust in health workers (especially lack of confidentiality), and perceptions of demasculization by being attended to by female health workers4–6; and (3) The anticipated psychological burden of living with HIV, including inability to cope with an HIV positive result, an associated lack of will to live, perceptions that an HIV-positive status hastens death, and that HCT results in being perceived by others as having been sexually promiscuous.

For example, where masculinity is framed as being strong and not needing help, and where cultural beliefs associate weakness with illness, men are less likely to seek help at health facilities.

Stigma around HIV threatens masculine notions of respectability, independence and emotional control and can prevent men from admitting illness and making use of health services. The experience of being sick and taking treatment forces men to redefine their sense of identity and masculinity.

Men said they felt self-conscious and uncomfortable at public clinics because it was unusual to find young men there for reasons other than HIV, and other people would assume any man at the clinic would be HIV positive. Negative participant experiences at public sector clinics included being shouted at and judged by health professionals and confidentiality violations.

“We were raised with the mentality that a man … is this strong person so when people see a weakness I will be afraid because I won’t be seen as a man and I will be called a woman… Other men will say you are a woman and must wear panties” (rural male, 25–35 years, Gert Sibande, Mpumalanga).

“Nobody fears being sick (more) than a male person, we are more terrified of being sick than our female counterparts. So if I have to take medication, it’s the same as giving in” (admitting illness) (urban male, 18–24 years, Gert Sibande, Mpumalanga).

Some men stated that traditional healing practices influence late initiation of ART and nonadherence because traditional medicine is taken when one is ill, and stopped when one is cured.

—

Best wishes, Neil

Let’s build a future where people are no longer dying for lack of healthcare knowledge – Join HIFA: www.hifa.org  

As technology creates a new set of rules for the economy‚ school leavers and prospective students should take heed of the professions likely to be in demand to ensure their future “employability”‚ says the one of the oldest trade unions, United Association of SA (Uasa).

Union spokesman Andre Venter expects decline in major economies in areas such as office and administrative jobs; manufacturing and production; construction and extraction; arts‚ design‚ entertainment‚ sports and media; and legal and installation and maintenance‚

But he expects growth in job categories such as business and financial operations; management; computer and mathematics; architecture and engineering; sales and related jobs; and education and training.

Venter has broken down this further‚ based on international research and the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs report to highlight jobs that will be in greater demand or remain stable in the next five years:….more

Ethiopia, indelibly linked with images of grinding poverty and famine, has quietly built one of Africa’s rare corporate success stories, with the continent’s only consistently profitable airline shuttling passengers from around the world through its hub in Addis Ababa.

Yet just as state-owned Ethiopian Airlines starts to vie with the likes of Dubai-based Emirates, outbreaks of violence around ethnic and human-rights protests have claimed an estimated 500 lives since June, threatening to deter travellers and undermining the political stability that helped it flourish. It is also grappling with the challenges of doing business in the region, with more than $200m in ticket payments tied up in countries including Nigeria and Angola, which the airline says is putting pressure on its liquidity. …more

more

A new overtime policy introduced by the national Department of Health could see some doctors in the public sector facing a pay cut as high as 30% in January.

Several KwaZulu-Natal doctors speaking to News24 on condition of anonymity have warned of a mass exodus of specialists from the public sector to the private sector if the policy is implemented.

The doctors, most of whom are specialists, raised concerns after the South African Medical Association (Sama) released a statement on Wednesday saying it intended lodging a formal dispute with the National Bargaining Council after the department’s decision….more

This advocacy video highlights the role of family practice in moving towards universal health coverage and demonstrates the 13 key elements of the family practice approach. It is directed at regional decision-makers and directors in the field of service delivery, care providers and communities and aims to build awareness on the family practice approach as a model for integrated health care service delivery.  The video includes messages from senior WHO experts about the implementation of family practice in the Eastern Mediterranean Region…..more

More

The role of community health workers in the South African public healthcare system has been unclear and controversial. How many do we need? What exactly should their role be? Who should employ them? What should they be paid? Is there good evidence to inform policy? Sasha Stevenson of SECTION27 lead Spotlight’s in-depth investigation into these pressing questions.

The structure of our health system and the nature of our healthcare workforce are unsuited to the goals that we have set ourselves: universal health coverage; an ‘end to AIDS’; and the reduction in non-communicable diseases through preventative and health promotion services. These goals can’t be reached in a hospital-centric health system with unsupervised, NGO-employed and underpaid community health workers (CHWs) serving as the only community-based services in the absence of capacitated and reliable clinic and hospital outreach programmes.

For some time, the national and provincial departments of health have been discussing and partly implementing a CHW programme. There have been multiple policy documents and there has been some action from provincial departments but we remain a long way from establishing a standardised CHW programme, let alone one that is capable of meeting the objectives of the health system, the National Strategic Plan (NSP), and the population…..more

2: Why do we need CHWs?
3: History of CHWs in South Africa
4: What should CHWs do?
5: How many CHWs do we need?
6: How should CHWs be employed?
7: How much will the CHW programme cost?

www.fundsforngos.org – The UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) is currently seeking applications for Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa Programme (TDDAP), a five-year flagship programme for DFID’s Africa…  

Areas of interest:

To ensure that there is reduced impact of deadly diseases on the lives of people of Africa, the programme will be structured around the following areas of work:

1. Working with regional and international health institutions to help them clarify their mandates and roles, develop and implement a robust set of international health policies and programmes, and establish adequate capacity for preventing and responding to health emergencies.

2. Supporting our partner countries to make sure that their national health systems are resilient, responsive, accountable and on-track to meet the standards set out in the International Health Regulations.

3. Ensuring that governments and regional health institutions are held to account for the prevention of health emergencies, delivery of quality health services and proper management of health budgets.

4. Gathering accurate data and evidence to inform responses to infectious diseases by African governments and international partners.

5. Contributing to the establishment of rapid response standing capacity in Africa able to provide surge response to tackle disease outbreaks.

There is a new opportunity for Africa-based investigators to apply for Innovation Seed Grants up to $100,000 for “1) solutions and strategies to reduce maternal, neonatal and child deaths in Africa, [or] 2) creative communication approaches to inspire African governments to fund research and development.”

A fuller description is online at http://gcgh.grandchallenges.org/challenge/grand-challenges-africa-innovation-seed-grants-0

These grants will go to “innovators resident in Africa with any level of experience, working in any discipline in colleges, universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-governmental and non-profit organizations.” The goal is to find local solutions to Africa’s pressing challenges and help the continent achieve the SDGs.

Submissions are due 1 pm on February 17, 2017 – effectively Thursday, Feb 16, for applications from Africa. (ORA deadline, if JHU is a sub or partner on a submission, will be Thursday, Feb 9).

This partner website for AESA in Africa links to registration info and instructions for prospective applicants and their institutions:

http://aasciences.ac.ke/aesa/programmes/grand-challenges-africa/innovation-seed-grant-round-1/  

Registering may be complicated, especially for first-time applicants and institutions, so please urge your partners and colleagues to begin this process early even if they have not decided whether to apply.

Please find here the Global Plan of Action: Health Systems Address Violence against Women and Girls (2016) and below, a list of new WHO resources on violence against women. Thank you for your attention. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/251664/1/WHO-RHR-16.13-eng.pdf?ua=1

Research

WHO ethical and safety recommendations for intervention research on Violence Against Women (VAW) (2016) The new WHO Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Intervention Research on Violence Against Women (VAW) ?developed in conjunction with global experts on tthe topic – give crucial guidance on how best to address questions of ethics and safety to researchers working on violence against women. The new recommendations reflect the ethical concerns on VAW research, expressed in numerous articles and publications, that have come to light since WHO published Putting Women First: Ethical and Safety Recommendations for Research on Domestic Violence Against Women in 2001. As the evidence base on the magnitude, context, and consequences of VAW has grown, research efforts and attention have begun to focus on decreasing the knowledge gap on effective responses through intervention research. There is therefore a need to consider ethical and safety questions unique to this context. http://who.int/entity/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/intervention-research-vaw/en/index.html

Advocacy tools:

– A short  animation film on strengthening the health system response to violence against women avaible in English, Spanish, and French. This animation highlights how the health system can play a role in responding to women who have experienced violence against women.

English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc_GHITvTmI

French: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuizNPowuMY

Spanish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAlY-1KI6ts

– Infographics including guidance for a first-line response from health care providers (LIVES) http://who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/violence/VAW_infographics/en/

Global policy:
–  A popular version of the global plan of action Global Plan of Action: Health Systems Address Violence against Women and Girls (2016)

This call to action is a popular version of the violence against women and girls section of the Global plan of action to strengthen the role of the health system to address  violence, in particular against women and girls and against children (attached).  http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/251664/1/WHO-RHR-16.13-eng.pdf?ua=1

Ados V. May, MPA | IBP Initiative Secretariat | Senior Technical Advisor
1299 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 550 | Washington, DC 20004 | www.ibpinitiative.org
o: +1 202 808 3846 | m: +1 202 999 8816 | email: ados.may@phi.org | Skype: adosmay

HIFA profile: Ados May is a Senior Technical Advisor at the IBP Initiative in the United States of America. ados.may AT phi.org

Hospitals and clinics in the SA government’s flagship National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot programme are failing to improve any faster than those in the rest of the country, reports Business Day. Despite repeat inspections and R145m spent, of 1,427 facilities inspected in the four years to March, just 89 of them scored a pass mark of 70% or more….more

See the Shanghai Declaration on Promoting Health in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the link is here: http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/9gchp/shanghai-declaration.pdf?ua=1

What is new in this Declaration is the focus on “health literacy” – a term which encompasses the use of information and knowledge in healthcare, and particularly the application of health information and knowledge in education at all levels.  

A clear set of commitments is set out, including the following:

“We commit to:

• recognize health literacy as a critical determinant of health and invest in its development;”
• develop, implement and monitor intersectoral national and local strategies for strengthening health literacy in all populations and in all educational settings;”
• increase citizens’ control of their own health and its determinants, through harnessing the potential of digital technology;”
• ensure that consumer environments support healthy choices through pricing policies, transparent information and clear labelling.”

Most travelers to Africa know to protect themselves from malaria. But malaria is far from the only mosquito-borne disease in Africa. Recent studies have revealed that dengue, a disease that is well recognized in Asia and the Americas, may be commonly misdiagnosed as malaria in Africa. So if you’re traveling to Africa, in addition to taking anti-malarial medications you should also take steps to avoid dengue…..more

Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) has a Dengue Prevention animation in multiple languages for use here:

http://sawbo-animations.org/video.php?video=//www.youtube.com/embed/31AspqabKbs

Office of Health Standards Compliance still not up to scratch after 5 years: DA.

DA spokesman on health matters Dr Wilmot James said on Sunday he had written to the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health‚ Mary Ann Dunjwa‚ to request that Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the Acting CEO of the OHSC‚ Bafana Msibi‚ come and explain to Parliament why it (OHSC) is incapable of measuring the quality of maternal (or any other health care) matter after five years since its establishment.

James said that a “breathtaking admission” to the Sunday Times‚ Motsoaledi had stated that the OHSC was‚ after five years‚ still “on a learning curve”‚ unable to design a robust health assessment model and therefore in no position to exercise oversight.

Asked if it took a simple organisation like the OHSC five years to figure out its job‚ how long would it take to establish National Health Insurance (NHI)‚ Motsoaledi‚ “with supreme arrogance”‚ had replied: “The problem with you people is that you are so impatient. This is grossly unfair. It shows a hatred for NHI.” more