FIX PUBLIC HEALTH FIRST
It's hard not to like National Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi. Unlike previous health ministers he is candid about problems in state hospitals. He says that instead of health care we have "tendercare" that has "destroyed our public health system".
Concerning Gauteng's Health Department he says "People went out on a rampage, ordering things that had nothing to do with healthcare." I have been saying this for years, so it's nice to be vindicated by the Health Minister.
A prime example of unnecessary spending was the R50 million purchase of ultra-violet lights for hospitals. These lights help with infection control, but not a single hospital requested them as they have more pressing needs.
It was a head office decision to buy them, almost certainly involving corruption. Most of them are now non-functional because they have not been maintained. It was one of ten contracts totalling R1 billion that the Hawks are investigating.
Motsoaledi also hits out at Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) companies that don't deliver. He says hi-tech equipment is bought from reputable companies but maintained by BEE contractors who had "never repaired a machine in [their] life".
Unnecessary BEE intermediaries push up costs. This is why we have paid close to double the normal cost for CAT scanners in Gauteng. The Gauteng Health Department is now phasing out all these intermediaries, which is long overdue.
Another Motsoaledi target is rip-off hospital security contracts. Chris Hani Baragwanath, for instance, spends R12.5 million a year on security. This could fund a small army, but thefts and assaults of patients still occur there often.
Motsoaledi's solution is to make security in-house, managing and paying guards directly. I understand his frustration with the poor value we get with current hospital security contracts. But hospitals don't need the added headache of managing security directly.
They need to concentrate on their core service to provide quality treatment. And contracts should be awarded fairly and transparently to obtain good service at the lowest price.
We should actually outsource more things, including laundry, catering and portering. This is what the Chief Albert Nkosi Hospital in Durban does very successfully. In Gauteng we have six state laundries that are a long-running disaster.
There are constant laundry shortages as 102 out of 192 laundry machines are broken and cost per linen piece is about double that of private laundries. It would be far better to sell these laundries and allow public hospitals to use private laundries.
My problem with Motsoaledi is that he has made ill-considered jibes about the private health sector. He's right about some outrageous abuses and over-charging by private hospitals.
But government intervention has hindered effective competition in this sector that would bring costs down. Smart regulation is the answer, but this government is botching it like it botches the running of state hospitals.
Private health care is a great asset as the more people who use their own money for this, the less crowded our public hospitals. Before extending government inefficiencies into the private sector, Motsoaledi should prove that the state can fix public health.
Jack Bloom MPL, is DA Leader in the Gauteng Legislature. This article first appeared in The Citizen.
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