Publications
Partners
Netcare is eager to train doctors, but regulations do not allow private healthcare institutions to do this, the director of strategy and health policy at Netcare, Melanie Da Costa, has told the Competition Commission.
Addressing its healthcare market inquiry, Da Costa said there was a severe shortage of doctors, specialists and nurses: 86 specialists for every 100
Netcare sought to address the shortage of nurses by training an average of 3 500 nurses a year.
Da Costa said there was an urgent need for more training facilities for young doctors in order to retain medical talent.
If this were achieved, access to specialist treatment would increase and costs would be brought down.
“If the skills shortage of doctors and specialists can be addressed, it will help alleviate the expenses and inefficiencies within the private healthcare sector.
“I think the big game changer here is the number of doctors in our country,” she said.
South African legislation prevents private hospitals from employing doctors, and most of the treatments that patients receive at hospitals are charged to their doctors, who function as health practitioners at the hospital in their personal capacities.
Da Costa said that principal industry role players appeared to agree that inflation and increases in utilisation were some of the primary reasons for the increase in private healthcare expenditure. She said that there were costs that arose due to the regulatory regime that were “beyond the control of private hospitals”.
This was particularly true of private hospitals that were not allowed to employ doctors without exemption, and medicines that could not be sourced in a cost-effective manner.
Da Costa argued that the principles of the New Medical Schemes Act of 2000 restricted the extent of competition between the schemes. To her this suggested that regulatory issues were a major impediment to the progress of private healthcare
