Health on National Health Council briefing

Good afternoon and welcome to this media briefing

Thank you for making time to join  us today and the purpose of the media briefing is to provide update on a number of health issues which have dominated the public discourse.

Employment of health care professionals 

Early this year the country woke up to widespread dissatisfaction about the employment of healthcare professionals, especially doctors in the midst of shortage in the public healthcare system. Unfortunately at that moment the department of health could not do anything due to budgetary constraints brought by consistent  austerity measures applied over a decade. However, a new budget presented  by Finance Minister on the 12 of March 2025, today we are announcing to you that we that the Council has approved advertisement of 1200 jobs for Doctors, 200 nurses and 250 other healthcare professionals at the cost of R1, 780 billion.  

The Human Resources Units will soon commence with recruitment processes once all logistics have been finalised.

Procurement of hospital beds, linen, and matrasses

One of the most embarrassing experiences the public health sector had to endure, is the shortage of simple things that will make the stay of patients a worthwhile experience. In fact, one of the biggest difference between the public and private sectors are the hotelling services characterised by the issues we have just mentioned.  As an example, we wish to quote to you that in the widely reported problems of Hellen Joseph Hospital, 7 complaints reported to the health Ombud, 5 of them were dismissed as unfounded and they have got to do with clinical care. The other two have to do with the issues of hotelling services. It is for that reason today that we wish to announce that w have checked province by province what that need in the form of hospital beds, bassinet for babies  for newborn babies (court beds). We remember with a sense of shame how babies were put in cutboard boxes in Mahikeng hospital in the North West province. Today, We are here announcing that the Council has decided that R1,4 million articles need to be bought and delivered to our hospitals. This will consist of

Description	Quantity	Amount
Beds (ICU, General wards, Three section electric beds, Four section electric beds. Multifunction electric beds, etc.	25 000	R725 million
Matrasses   (Hospital beds, pressure métrasses, infant court Matrasses,	80 000	R38,7 million
Bassinet ( for new =born babies	76, 525	R309, 5 million
Linen including bed sheet, pillows, etc.	1,250  million	R273 million
Total	1,4 million	R1.346 billion

Oxygen plants

It is common cause that during Covid-19 period, many health facilities used to run out of medical oxygen which was one of the mainstays of treatment. The global fund then offered to put up self-generating oxygen plants , Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants or units. The Department of Health gave this work to the IDT as implementing agent implement in 55 hospitals across the country. Unfortunately, persistent media resorts about possible corruption and irregularities in the procurement process. 
The Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, as the parent department, entered the fray and is now conducting the investigations. We support the investigation, but we are worried what will happen to the department of health while the investigations are going on. We then decided as the department of health to move the project from IDT to DBSA, and we have agreed with the Minister of Finance under whom the DBSA reports in this aspect, we wish to inform the public that the project had not yet started, so it was easier to move it to DBSA. We are also looking into the possibility of giving some of the hospital infrastructure maintenance to the DBSA.

Review of human resources policies in the health sector

There are lot of health policies adopted at the dawn of democracy which we believe are now obsolete or do no longer serve the purpose they were intended for. Some of the them have created unnecessary costs without any tangible benefits. We can even say some have actually contributed to the undermining of the public sector`s ability to deliver quality services. In the National Health Council meeting held on the 28-29 November 2024, a decision was taken for the review of these policies. The Minister of  Health then appointed a review committee in terms of section 91 (1) of the National Health Act of 2003 (Act no 61 of 2003) read with sections 91 (2) of the same Act. 

1.     Dr Cassius Lubisi – Former DG Presidency
2.    Ms Sibongile Mchunu – Former Registrar SANC
3.    Professor Laetitia Rispel  - Professor of Public Health Sciences University of Pretoria
4.    Prof Eric Buch – Former Dean of Health Sciences of Pretoria University.
5.    Dr Carter – Former Deputy Director General – National Health Department
6.    Dr Rajen Morar – COO Nelson Mandela University, Medical School
7.    Prof Binu Luke – Physician and member of the Medical and dental Board of Health professions council of South Africa
8.    Ms Nomvula Marawa - Strategy and Policy specialist
9.    Prof Busisiwe Ncama – Deputy Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences  - UKZN
10.    Prof Somadoda Fikeni - Chair of Public Service Commission

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