Ramaphosa’s ‘watershed’ health summit widely praised

The South African health industry has praised President Cyril Ramaphosa for championing the two-day Presidential Health Summit – starting in Boksburg, the East Rand, tomorrow.

Aspen Pharmacare senior executive Stavros Nicolaou said the indaba “will go a long way in creating an enabling environment to come up with institutional processes in addressing the country’s health crisis”.

Ramaphosa, who will lead the government delegation to the summit, will deliver a keynote address during plenary to mark the official opening and address the closing on Saturday.

Hailed as a watershed gathering, it will bring together key stakeholders from various constituencies in the health sector, to deliberate and propose solutions to address challenges facing the country’s healthcare system.

Nicolaou said: “This will make it possible for all of us in healthcare to work together in addressing health challenges like universal coverage.”

While people should not expect the summit “to solve all the health challenges at once”, he said the meeting “should come up with an action plan to address immediate and long-term health challenges the country is grappling with”.

Nicolaou added: “This summit is an acknowledgement by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the government that our healthcare system is challenged. The fact that this shows right leadership by President Ramaphosa to acknowledge how challenged the healthcare sector is, we are happy about him conceding that we are in a crisis and elevating this to the highest office in the land.

“We never had such a summit before. This is long overdue because the problems the country is facing are bigger than health.

“Health, education and economic growth are all key sectors which require attention because they are interlinked. If we do not address poverty, we will soon face social tension.”

Netcare Limited director for strategy and health policy, Melanie Da Costa, said: “Out of this summit, there will be additional work to be done by all delegates.

“There is so much to be covered, especially when we break into commissions to thrash out such issues as human resources, procurement, infrastructure, information technology, leadership and governance.”

Cassey Chambers who is operations director at the SA Depression and Anxiety Group said the summit was “a great start”.

“Absolutely – it is a great opportunity to raise critical issues at the president’s level so that we can see some action and reform.

“There is a need for serious collaboration between the public and private sector – including pharmaceuticals, NGOs, state departments and service delivery.”

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