Compact in disarray

Stakeholders refuse to signal tacit acceptance of contentious NHI Act.

- Ina Opperman

The Presidential Health Compact signed in Pretoria last Thursday is worth nothing because stakeholders major from the business and medical sectors withdrew their support and refused to sign it due to unilateral changes to the wording to include support for the implementation of the NHI Act.

The health compact is President Cyril Ramaphosa's initiative and was supposed to outline a framework for various sectors of society including government, business, labour, health professionals and academics to work together to tackle the most pressing health challenges in South Africa. The first health compact was signed in October 2018.

The second compact follows the 2023 Presidential Health Summit, which built on the inaugural summit of 2018.

Business Unity South Africa (Busa), the South African Medical Association and the South African Health Professionals Collaboration, that represents about 25 000 doctors, all refused to sign the health compact in its current form because they were expected to sign a document that refers to National Health Insurance (NHI) 25 times.