Address by Acting President Shipokosa Paulus Mashatile at the signing of the Second Presidential Health Compact, Union Buildings, Tshwane

Thursday, 22 August 2024

Programme Director;
Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi;
Minister of Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande;
Director-General of the Department of Health, Dr Sandile Buthelezi;
Directors-General present;
Representatives of the health fraternity;
Representatives of business, labour and civil society;
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;

Good afternoon and welcome to the Union Buildings.

One of the best definitions of how important health is to human happiness and prosperity was articulated almost 2,000 years ago by the Roman poet Virgil, who is reported to have stated, "The greatest wealth is health."

This is especially true when it comes to the health of a nation.

A healthy nation is more economically productive and prosperous.

A healthy population enjoys higher life expectancy, better quality of life and overall well-being. As a result, providing quality health care is of the utmost importance to all of us.

South Africa is committed to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We are committed to the SDG goal of 'ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages'.

This is a bold commitment to achieve universal health coverage. It is a commitment to provide access to affordable medicines and vaccines for all.

If our nation's health is truly to be our nation's wealth, we must fix our healthcare system. A better healthcare system improves health outcomes, increases life expectancy and lowers the disease burden.

This also enables us to effectively protect the population against public health emergencies, whether it is HIV/Aids, COVID-19, Monkey pox (Mpox) and others that are yet to come.

According to the World Health Organization, "a well-functioning health system responds in a balanced way to a population's needs and expectations by:

• Improving the health status of individuals, families and communities.
• Defending the population against what threatens its health.
• Protecting people against the financial consequences of ill health.
• Providing equitable access to people-centred care.
• Making it possible for people to participate in decisions affecting their health and health system."

It enables us to make more efficient use of valuable resources - from human resources to medical supplies to technological and financial resources.

This results in lower healthcare costs for individuals, families, communities and government.

However, our public healthcare system has many challenges. These challenges prevent government from providing decent and quality healthcare to all South Africans.

It is for this reason that in 2018, we convened the first Presidential Health Summit.

This brought together many stakeholders engaged with the health system, including policy makers, academics, planners, service providers, educators, health advocates and users.

It also resulted in the signing of the first Presidential Health Compact.

Together, we made a commitment to support the Department of Health to implement the nine pillars of the compact.

These pillars include improving human resource capabilities and expanding access to medicines.

They include ramping up health infrastructure development and steadily improving the quality of health services.

We made a commitment to better financial and information systems management, good governance and community engagement.

We affirmed the important role played by the private sector in strengthening health systems across the board.

Today we will be signing the second Presidential Health Compact.

This presents us with an opportunity to reflect on progress since the signing of the first compact.

The introduction of the Human Resources Training Grant during the COVID-19 pandemic for instance enabled the department to create more than 73,000 new posts.

The private sector also continues to support health workforce development.

For example, the Public Health Enhancement Fund has trained 100 Doctors and 75 Masters and Doctoral graduates.

Access to medicines, medical devices and equipment has been expanded.

New technology is being used to improve supply chain mechanisms, streamline regulatory processes and reduce backlogs.

The development of local manufacturing capabilities is being prioritised to expand access to medicines.

We have been consistent that building a stronger local manufacturing industry is key to our country's health security, especially during pandemics.

Technology is being harnessed to improve patient records systems.

During the COVID-19 pandemic we were able to speed up this process. By last year 50 million people had been registered on the Health Patient Registration System.

We are expanding our health infrastructure.

By November 2023, 149 new primary healthcare facilities had been completed.

Thirty new hospitals are either opened or under construction.

We are implementing the National Quality Improvement Plan to ensure that more public and private facilities meet the Office of Health Standards Compliance requirements. This is in line with the requirements of the NHI.

The National Quality Improvement Plan has led to an increase in positive patient experiences at public health facilities.

Positive experiences reported by patients rose from 76 percent in 2017 to 85 percent by March 2024.

Healthcare funding faces challenges due to budget cuts and a constrained fiscal environment, compounded by inefficiencies, mismanagement and corruption in resource allocation.

Budgeting in the health sector is steadily improving to ensure a more equitable allocation of resources.

Less money is being lost to litigation. This is thanks to the hard work of the Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum, which continues to expedite prosecutions and recover stolen funds.

The private sector has a crucial role to play in strengthening health systems. Our experience with COVID-19 showed how we could deepen public-private partnerships.

With greater collaboration, the resources and capabilities of both the public and private sectors can be brought to bear to serve those who need health care most.

With the NHI Act now signed into law, it is even more urgent that we work together.

As we implement the NHI, we will build on lessons learned to streamline standards and ensure quality of care, whether it is rendered at a public or private facility.

We need diverse expertise as we work towards strengthening health systems and building their resilience into the future

We need to share resources to ensure that programmes are implemented.

Involving the private sector, labour and civil society throughout this effort is key to ending inequality in health.

It is now up to us to build on the successes of the first Presidential Health Compact.

We need to ensure that the second Presidential Health Compact that we are signing today is responsive to the challenges facing our health system.

To all our partners, please keep up the good work, continue to demonstrate progress and deepen your collaboration to overcome challenges.

Our nation's health is too critical, too essential to development, to be weakened by mismanagement, funding crises and other problems.

We expect all stakeholders to bring solutions and work with the departments of Health and Science as well as Innovation to implement them.

Implementation is the foremost priority of this Seventh Administration. Effective policy implementation means we can take the right actions and follow through with the plans, leading to successful outcomes.

I have full confidence that implementation is the priority of all of us gathered here today.

On behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa, it is my privilege to sign the second Presidential Health Compact today.

I wish you well in your endeavours.

I thank you.