EVEN with limited resources, Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla, believes that many public health facilities could perform better if it were not for inefficiency, poor management, neglect of duty due to poor supervision and outright corruption.
The Minister acknowledged that the public health system faces several challenges, including a high burden of disease leading to huge service demands while resources are continuously reducing because of poor economic performance. However, despite these serious weaknesses the system has proven to be “resilient” even under the most testing pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While there were days especially at the peak of [COVID-19] wave when both the public and private hospitals ran out of high care and ICU beds, the system did not collapse,” Phaahla said.
The Minister was speaking at the second Presidential Health Summit at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg – a platform to review the implementation of the interventions agreed
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