The Eastern Cape Department of Health will officially open the Settlers PPP hospital on 14 January 2010; a private public partnership with Nalithemba hospitals and Netcare, a partnership that has seen to the opening of the Port Alfred private public partnership hospital in 2009.
Private partnerships and collaboration in the health sector is important and timely in light of the challenges the public sector is facing in healthcare finance, management and provision. Many governments are confronted by fiscal constraints that force them to carefully prioritise and restrict public expenditures.
Moreover, many public health systems are already indebted and face further fiscal pressures, such as the need to provide care to increasingly aging populations, improve quality, or invest in often expensive medical treatment and technology advances.
Turning to the private sector can, when appropriately structured and executed, help address specific cost and investment challenges, deliver improvements in efficiency (for example: improved service provision and management at reduced costs) and enhance service quality (for example: increased expertise, more rapid and substantial investments in infrastructure and new medical technologies, a potential to attract and retain better performing staff).
However, leveraging partnerships and collaboration with the private sector to address the challenges governments face in healthcare today may not be easy.
The Eastern Cape Department of Health’s partnering and collaboration with the private sector has so far proved fruitful beyond measure. These partnerships have ensured that Eastern Cape Department of Health’s staff is well capacitated to provide quality health care to the Eastern Cape citizens
Issued by: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
8 January 2010
Source: Department of Health, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
(http://www.ecdoh.gov.za)
