GEORGE NEWS - The South African Medical Association (Sama) and Hospital Association of South Africa (Hasa) have welcomed the scrapping of the certificate of need (CoN) that would have given the National Health Department the right to prescribe to healthcare practitioners where they are allowed to practise.
In the North Gauteng High Court on 24 July, Justice Antony Millar ruled in favour of the Solidarity Trade Union and seven other applicants who sought an order declaring that sections 36 to 40 of the National Health Act (NHA) are unconstitutional and invalid, and ought to be removed from the act.
These provisions in the act determined that all healthcare practitioners had to obtain a CoN from the National Health Department before opening practices in specific areas.
In its application, Solidarity argued that the requirement for a certificate of need unlawfully infringed on health practitioners' right to practise their profession.
Solidarity said if the provisions took effect, it would come down to the dispossession of health practitioners' practices and property, at the cost of the practitioners and those who currently make use of their services.
Solidarity CEO Dr Dirk Hermann said their victory ensured that one of the biggest pillars of the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) was toppled. The government's aim with these provisions was to open up the way for the NHI. It would have empowered the government "to hijack medical practices almost completely and run them at its own discretion instead of the discretion of the doctors. A government should not at all have such powers."
"The government structure must take hands with the private sector, and contract out services. The private sector is not unwilling to help, as is widely believed, but will assist, even if it is at a lower fee."
'Discrediting NHI'
In a statement issued a day after the court's pronouncement, National Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi slammed media reporting on the outcome as "a deliberate campaign to discredit the NHI". He said the provisions were drafted 20 years before the NHI Act and have nothing to do with the NHI.
Both Sama and Hasa have welcomed the ruling. Hasa said it was disappointed that a legal challenge became necessary. "We would have preferred achieving the objective of a stronger health system through a negotiated and collaborative effort to increase the number of medical students and nurses in medical training facilities to address the healthcare system's needs."
• Hasa was among the other applicants in the case that included the Alliance of South African Independent Practitioner Associations, South African Private Practitioner Forum as well as four individual health practitioners.
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