Heres what the EFF says about health issues.
Universal access to healthcareThe EFF says it is committed to achieving universal health coverage ( giving everyone access to the same package of free basic health services, free of charge ) and its government will expand maternal, child and teen health services, as well as sex education, lifesaving surgery and undisrupted access to essential medicines. Universal health coverage is a 2030 sustainable development goal . The EFF will focus on groups such as the poor, women, people with disabilities, the elderly, sex workers, disabled and gender-diverse people, who often face discrimination at health facilities. The partys manifesto doesnt give details of how it will implement universal health coverage, but they did table a Private Members Bill in 2020, the National Health Amendment Bill , which said in order to give everyone the healthcare they need, all public health facilities need to operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The health department responded saying a detailed cost analysis would first need to be done, as the proposal holds massive financial implications.
About healthcare facilities, the EFF says the following:
- The party will build more clinics. If they are elected into power, the party says there will be at least one clinic per ward by 2028 ( SA has 4 468 municipal wards ) and the country had 3 506 public primary healthcare facilities by May 2023 , which means the EFF would need to build at least 962 new facilities between June 2024 and December 2028; this works out to about 17 clinics per month.
- The party will establish a primary healthcare facility in each school ( by the end of 2022, SA had 24 871 schools 22 589 public and 2 282 private). Currently, public schools are served by an integrated school health system , which involves health teams, mostly nurses, visiting schools for screenings of certain types of diseases, immunisation and deworming, and sexual and reproductive health services, but permanent, onsite facilities are rare; private schools have informal systems. This means that the EFF will essentially have to build a facility for close to 25 000 schools. The party doesnt give a date by when these facilities need to be completed. In addition, the EFF also says it will set up residential clinics for students at tertiary training facilities (many institutions already have on-site clinics via campus health services ).
- An EFF government will, by 2026, have reliable backup power supply in all health facilities. By 2027, every hospital will have its own taxi and bus terminal, and by 2028 all hospitals will have a forensic lab and all roads around public healthcare facilities will be paved. The EFF will build specialist dental, tuberculosis, diabetes, heart and lung disease hospitals. Each district ( South Africa has 52 health districts ) will have a specialist hospital, which will be open 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Big companies will be legally compelled to contribute to the building of healthcare facilities and all hospitals and clinics will have high-speed internet.
- Health facilities will be allowed to procure their own supplies (currently they have to go through provincial governments).
About health workers and training, the EFF says the following:
- They will appoint all community health workers (field health workers who normally live in the community they serve and who do basic screening, prevention and medicine adherence work ) as full-time government employees with pension and leave benefits ( currently most are employed by NGOs and without benefits ). The same will apply to security guards, cleaners, drivers and general workers at health facilities. The party doesnt provide a timeline for this.
- All funded, vacant positions in public hospitals and clinics will be filled by June 2025. (In other words, if the EFF is elected into power, it will fill all positions within a year. In 2021, South Africa had a 20% vacancy rate for doctor positions in government clinics and a 14% vacancy rate for such posts in state hospitals ; around 15 474 doctors worked in the public sector in 2020). The EFF will establish a nursing and medical school in each province (many private nursing colleges were closed down over the past few years).
- By 2027, all medical schools will have to include courses on traditional medicine in their curriculums. All district hospitals will have consulting rooms for traditional health practitioners (no timeline is given for this) and traditional healers will be part of the primary healthcare system. Health facilities will be allowed to procure their own supplies (currently they have to go through provincial governments).
About health services, the EFF says the following:
- More midwives and doulas will be trained to support w
