health minister Aaron Motsoaledi

Government does not believe it can wait until the healthcare system is improved before implementing national health insurance, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has said.

The minister was speaking at a briefing at Tuynhuys, Parliament, where the report of the outcomes of the presidential health summit, held late last year, was released.

During his address on Tuesday, Motsoaledi said government would be taking significant steps towards implementing universal healthcare.

Last week, president Cyril Ramaphosa said that the National Health Insurance Bill would be tabled before Parliament this year.

NHI will ensure that South Africans can receive free health services at the point of care at both public and private quality-accredited healthcare service providers, Motsoaledi said.

NHI is a proposed state-run health financing system that aims to pool funds to provide access to quality health services for all South Africans regardless of thei
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Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has appointed a task team to urgently tackle an invasion of monkeys at Durban’s RK Khan Hospital.

Motsoaledi flew to Durban on Wednesday to conduct a site visit at the state facility, which has long been grappling with the primates invading the hospital’s kitchen and, more recently, the wards.

He said he was extremely concerned and decided to take immediate action after watching a video on social media that shows monkeys roaming freely through a ward full of patients.

“The images I saw were disturbing. I just learnt this morning that the hospital was advised by some people who claim to know about monkeys not to interact with them or disturb them because they get aggressive,” said Motsoaledi.

“I don’t accept that type of advice – that monkeys can be just left among human beings, especially sick human beings, out of fear that they will get aggressive.”

M
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