Question NW2895 to the Minister of Health
05 November 2018 - NW2895
Sonti, Ms NP to ask the Minister of Health
(a) What were the (i) findings and (ii) recommendations in respect of the National Health Insurance pilot projects and (b) were the specified findings and recommendations taken into consideration in the current National Health Insurance Bill?
Reply:
(a) (i) The National Health Insurance (NHI) Pilot Projects were related to a number of interventions that were intended to improve the performance of the public healthcare system.
- These interventions included the development of the ideal clinic model so that all public healthcare clinics comply to an agreed set of norms and standards. This approach has resulted in significant improvement in the quality of services rendered at clinics and we now have 1507 clinics that have reached ideal status.
- The Health Patient Registration System HPRS system was developed to address the absence of a national health information system with an integrated data platform that would allow for the interoperability of various systems, using a unique identifier (ID). The HPRS system was developed and rolled out to 3023 Primary Health Care facilities and 3 Hospitals. By 25 October 2018, a total of 25 million people have been registered on the Patient Beneficiary Register.
- District Clinical Specialist Teams were established in all pilot districts to support facilities in improving maternal and child healthcare services.
- Municipal ward based Primary Heath Care Outreach Teams were established in all the NHI districts. A total of 3323 teams have been established and are functional
- Integrated school health teams were established and learners have been screened for problems until vision, speech, hearing and oral health.
- To improve the availability of medicines, the stock visibility system, Rx solution and CCMDD were implemented which significantly improved medicines availability and also improved access to medicines as over 2.1 million patients are registered to receive their medication close to their home.
- General Practitioners were also contracted to deliver services in public healthcare facilities which reduced the need for patients to be referred to Community Health Centre’s (CHCs) or hospitals.
The public sector strengthening projects were successful and a number of these projects have been expanded beyond the NHI districts.
(b) The NHI Bill is intended to establish the NHI fund as outlined in the White Paper published by Cabinet in June 2017. The pilot projects are intended to strengthen the public healthcare system hence the results of the pilot projects do not find direct expression in the Bill. Remember the Bill is a translation of the policy framework into law.
END.