The Umzinyathi Department of Health is moving forward on the implementation of the first phase of the National Health Insurance scheme which is a major boost to 93% (486 205) of the population who have no medical aid.
This was said at a recent Umzinyathi district health stakeholder meeting at Battlefield Country Lodge.
Umzinyathi has been selected as one of the districts that will pilot the NHI. Gugu Shabangu, acting district manager health manager, said the aim of the meeting was to give feedback on what had been achieved since the NHI was first mooted in 2012 and to outline plans for the new financial year.
“It is important that we get feedback from stakeholders such as traditional healers, Councillors, religious leaders, non-government organisations and others.

“We didn’t want to implement any plans without their input and endorsement. We also wanted to share the NHI White Paper which will be shared with all the forums within Umzinyathi so that everybody understands NHI and its objectives,” added Ms Shabangu.
It was indicated that the implementation of NHI will take place in three phases over 14 years. Ms Shabangu commented that the progress report on Primary Health Care Re-engineering confirmed that Umzinyathi ‘is doing a fantastic job to implement NHI which includes strengthening of the service delivery.’
Other statistics unveiled at the meeting revealed that poverty levels within Umzinyathi are real with over a third of the population reliant on social grants. Over 60 000 are illiterate and have no high school education.

Dr Sandy Bedassi of the Dundee Hospital Board with Hospital chief executive officer, Happy Khanyi.
While the prevalence of HIV/Aids appears to be declining slightly, there are growing cases of deaths caused by malnutrition and in Endumeni most cases were reported from the Stratford farm area in 2015.
Another statistic that raised eyebrows was Dundee Secondary and Thalana High reporting the highest number of teenage pregnancies in the municipal area while one statistic that was also reported on, was that there are 1 752 ‘sex workers’ in the Umzinyathi District. It is unclear how this figure was tabulated but was confirmed by the Department of Statistics. The packed hall applauded the work done by the district. Ordinary community members shared their sensitive living testimonials on how Primary Health Care Outreach Teams have improved their livelihood.