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Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi claimed during his State of the Province address that the province would ‘buy back 18 private hospitals’ which will be converted into public hospitals in support of NHI.

The premier did not go on to say how these private hospitals will be paid for, but if you have a government pension, I’d be a wee bit concerned. Lesufi also did not elaborate on whether ‘converting’ the private hospitals meant destroying their ability to care for patients, as per the government’s standard MO.

During the State of the Province speech, Lesufi also called out President Ramaphosa to ‘sign that bill,’ saying “There is a document on your table … That document will ensure that every South African has access to medical health, whether they have medical aid or they do not. We are urging the president to sign the National Health Insurance [Bill] so that everyone can have access to a quality health system in our province.”

“We are ready to improve our hospitals so that we can deal with this. Listen to this: With the assistance of the Workers’ Investment Portfolio, we have just signed an agreement that will see the Gauteng government buying back 18 private hospitals in our province, and we will convert them into public hospitals so that we are ready for the National Health Insurance [scheme]. This investment with the National Workers Fund, we believe will go a long way to make sure that our health system is improved in our province.”

Lesufi said that the “Workers’ Investment Fund’ had already proposed investing “billions” into the provincial government’s plans.

“We are concluding those negotiations, and as soon as we conclude those negotiations we will introduce those hospitals. But the negotiations have started. We know the names of the hospitals, and this Workers Fund will make funding available for this,” said Lesufi.

Lesufi: we have agreed to buy 18 private hospitals, and we will turn them into public hospitals so that we are ready for NHI#GPSOPA2024

— Bongekile Macupe (@BongeMacupe) February 19, 2024

It’s been said a thousand times, but why not just get the existing public hospitals up to standard with the “Workers’ Investment Fund”?

Gauteng Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko chipped in from the wings that the Gauteng Department of Health was making “sure that our infrastructure is ready for the NHI”.

“We are doing renovations in hospitals, we are doing the buying of hospitals which, when we are coming back in the budget speech, we will be coming back with the amounts that we have used.”

News24 tried to get a comment from Lesufi over who exactly was going to pay for all this, but Lesufi’s office sent them to the Department of Health, and the Department of Health sent them back to Lesufi’s office – so no clarity about which pension fund, or taxpayer, is going to pay for the 18 hospitals on Gauteng’s shopping list.

Several of the bigger workers unions were also approached, but they were as stumped as the rest of us, stating that they were not aware of a central ‘workers fund’ that would foot the bill, as all the unions have their own separate funds.

Premier Lesufi is nonetheless excited about buying up hospitals, saying “It falls within our vision; our vision was to get some of the private hospitals that are closer to our services, that we can convert into public hospitals.”

Expect plenty more exciting plans to be unveiled in the run-up to the election.

[source:news24]