One group in ARHAP-IRHAP’s wider network, the Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare’s Centre of Excellence in Faith and Health, based in Memphis in the US, will also be a partner in the new collaboration with SOPH, and was represented at the launch. The launch included the signing of a Memorandum of Collaboration and a seminar on 9 March.

Seminar presenters from Memphis outlined how ARHAP’s work in Africa has provided important “learnings from the ground”, which have to some extent helped shape an initiative taking place in Memphis – building a trusted health care delivery system that blends what the hospital knows about disease with what religious communities know about life. Called the Congregational Health Network (CHN), this initiative is a partnership between congregations and faith communities to share in the ministry of caring for CHN patients in the community.

The programme is having remarkable effects in health care. In one case, the provision of CHN home-based care-giving services reduced the annual hospital visits of an elderly man suffering from congestive heart failure from six to one. There are ample examples of other positive health outcomes, including significantly reduced mortality rates among CHN patients – and most of the community work is unpaid; it is done for “love not money”.

UCT recognises the tremendous value of ARHAP-IRHAP’s work. As noted by Professor Leslie London, head of the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, “It is important not only to recognise that investing in systems outside of hospitals can improve health care outcomes, but to understand how that takes place – through what pathways and mechanisms; because if we understand that we can potentially extrapolate to other contexts which are very different to Memphis and to the faith-based environments they are working in.”

As the collaboration gets off the ground, the School will be supporting engagements between ARHAP-IRHAP, Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare and its own health policy and systems work that further investigates these complex system dynamics, and generates wider lessons for health system development in South Africa and beyond.

Source: http://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=7739

The surprise release of the ANC’s discussion document on the proposed National Health Insurance scheme has again opened up the deep and disturbing economic divisions that persist in South Africa…HEALTH-E NEWS SERVICE

• Report - Resource requirements of alternative health care financing reforms in South Africa.
• Policy brief (1) – What resources do we need for a universal health system in South Africa and what are the design implications?
• Policy brief (2) – Should we pursue a universal health system or something else in South Africa?

After a media briefing session and the release of the findings through the SHIELD and HEU websites, media coverage to date includes:

National health to cost quarter of GDP, 7 October 2010

The government may have to spend as much as a quarter of South Africa’s GDP on the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme if it is to become a reality, a UCT study has revealed….CAPE ARGUS

The prescription health care really needs, 6 October 2010

Eighteen years ago my first child was born in a government hospital, Johannesburg General. It’s unimaginable that I would make the same choice today. Anyone with the resources now rushes into the competent and expensive bosom of the private medical system….CAPE ARGUS

Raising taxes to pay for NHI ‘premature’, 6 October 2010

Before the government considers raising taxes to pay for national health insurance (NHI), it should meet its own promise to allocate 15% of its budget to health…….BUSINESS DAY

Is NHI feasible? 5 October 2010

Universal health coverage, or National Health Insurance, is affordable and would have the greatest spin off for the vast majority of South Africans who do and will increasingly rely on the state health sector, a University of Cape Town modeling initiative has revealed…HEALTH-E

‘NHI plan cheapest in long run’, 5 October 2010

The proposed national health insurance scheme would require a substantial increase in public spending and could increase the income tax burden of the highest earners from about 41% to 45%…..THE TIMES

DOUGLAS RAMAPHOSA: Working together to make the NHI succeed, 5 October 2010

THE African National Congress (ANC) has announced plans to take its National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme forward and has given us a hint of what the health industry will look like from 2012…BUSINESS DAY

CEO says it won’t lose members over NHI, 4 October 2010

Momentum CEO Anthon Swart said: “Research shows that all over the world where NHIs are put into place there is always a certain percentage that will opt for private healthcare.” Swart said that in South Africa the percentage of private medical aid members had risen above that figure: “In South Africa, it’s gone up in the past two years to between 16% and 17%.”….THE TIMES

Experts attack NHI plan, 2 October 2010

The ANC’s proposal for a National Health Insurance has a very unusual design, says a top health economist. But can a head office based in Pretoria have an impact on the poorest of the poor?….CAPE ARGUS

A call for frank public debate, 30 September 2010

Since the ANC’s announcement last week that a national health insurance (NHI) will be pursued, we have once again seen claims that an NHI is unaffordable and that the whole idea should be consigned to the garbage bin. However, South Africa can have a health system that makes us proud and serves everyone, rich and poor, in an equitable manner….HEALTH-E. A version of this article was also published in other newspapers, such as The Mercury, The Witness and the Cape Times.

An NHI to really reverse the rot, 23 September 2010

THE African National Congress’s (ANC’s) proposed National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme is starting to take shape and, as predicted, practical considerations have forced its architects to tone down their ambitions, particularly with regard to the time line….BUSINESS DAY

ANC’s NHI raises dilemma for healthcare costs, 23 September 2010

Prof Di McIntyre’s research goes to an issue confronting many families and employers as the African National Congress (ANC) pushes ahead with plans to introduce NHI….BUSINESS DAY

ANC aims to implement NHI in 2012, September 2010

NHI will kick off in 2012 and be implemented over a period of 14 years, African National Congress (ANC) health sub-committee chairperson Zweli Mkhize told journalists at the ANC national general council (NGC) in Durban on Tuesday….MAIL & GUARDIAN

NHI will cost same as current healthcare, September 2010

The latest research from the University of Cape Town’s health economics unit has found that spending on the national health insurance system (NHI) would roughly match what government currently spends on healthcare….MAIL & GUARDIAN

See latest Mail & Guardian report.

And tune into Radio 2000 tomorrow (23 September 2010) for a 7.25am interview with Prof McIntyre.