Covid-19: Virus forced us into long-overdue health sector revolution

The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed a necessary revolution in the healthcare sector which has seen resources, knowledge and service delivery improve in unprecedented ways, say industry experts.

Public and private sector collaborations in the fight against Covid-19 could result in the South African healthcare sector seeing more formal public private partnerships (PPPs) being established in future, according to Jessica Spira, Business Development Director for the healthcare sector at Rand Merchant Bank.

The pandemic has highlighted a common tendency for nations to under-invest in healthcare, and South Africa has had its own far reaching challenges. But the silver lining to this crisis is that government funds and healthcare budgets have been mobilised without delay to close some of the gaps. The pandemic imposed a renewed focus on improving and expanding sustainable public health facilities across the country for the benefit of our citizens.

In addition, there has been a constructive collaboration between the public and private sectors over the past four months through bodies such as the B4SA Health Workgroup, the Solidarity Fund and other initiatives such as First Rand’s SPIRE Fund, which has seen constructive collaboration between the public and the private sector, Spira noted. These collaborations also demonstrated a willingness for the private sector to contribute to the public healthcare needs of the country.

Collaborative efforts to find effective treatments and a vaccine for the Sars-Cov 2 virus has seen the bolstering of resources in the science community. On Thursday, the University of the Free State announced that three of its scientists together with authors from other institutions, were part of an international COVID-19 study looking at the potential for transmission of the virus among animals. The team used the opportunity presented by previously sequenced genomes to screen for variation in the genes associated with susceptibility to infection with SARS-CoV-2.

In February, before the pandemic struck, R230 billion was earmarked for health in financial year 2020/21, increasing to R244 billion in financial year 2021/22 and R258 bn in financial year 2022/23.

According to RMB Chief Economist Ettienne le Roux, health made up around 14% of total government spending and was expected to grow on average by 5% annually over the next three years. In response to the pandemic, government allocated R22 billion specifically for the purpose of fighting the virus and strengthen the healthcare sector.

“In turn this was part of a R145 billion increase in non-interest expenditure which also included additional spending on grants, basic education, SMEs etc. The R145 billion of additional spend was funded predominantly by spending cutbacks elsewhere. We will have to wait for the October MTBPS to see how the Feb 2020 budgeted numbers for health will change for the next three years.”

The Chinese government has involved itself in the efforts of nearly all of its trade partners in fighting Covid-19, including South Africa.

Spokesperson for the Chinese mission in South Africa Du Ping said there were several lessons China’s efforts could offer the South African government. Strong leadership, efficient co-ordination, and community based control were top of the Republic’s stringent plan to control the virus, according to Ping.

“China’s efforts to contain the COVID-19 are painstaking yet effective and we have widely shared the experience with South Africa and other countries.”

Science and technology have underpinned China’s anti-virus efforts, Ping continued.

“China led the world in developing a hi-tech system of rapidly identifying those infected, and leveraged big data and information technology in tracking and tracing infections. China has accelerated the R&D and application of medicines,vaccines, and new test kits.”

China’s inactivated COVID-19 vaccine was expected to be ready for the market by the end of this year or early next year. The Chinese government planned to make the COVID-19 vaccine ‘a global public” upon its release for application.

• Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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