WATCH: Can the NHI fix South Africa’s health budget blues?

Doctors trained specifically to work in rural areas are struggling to find work in far-flung areas because provincial health departments don’t have the money to pay them. Find out what could change this in this episode of Health Beat

January 11, 2023 at 08:00 am

There aren’t enough doctors working in South Africa’s rural areas. To fix this, the Umthombo Youth Development Foundation has trained hundreds of health workers, the majority of whom end up working in the country’s far-flung areas.
Now, the project’s success is being undermined by hiring freezes as provincial health departments battle to balance a shrinking public purse and increasing salaries.
In the fourth episode of Health Beat, Mia Malan asks the head of National Health Insurance, Nicholas Crisp, whether the scheme could solve the problem.