PRESS STATEMENT BY
THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY

HEALTH POLICY ‘A MINEFIELD OF PARADOXES’ SAYS IFP

CAPE TOWN :  6 JUNE, 2000

Speaking in the National Assembly debate on the Health Budget Vote today, Dr Ruth Rabinowitz MP, IFP Parliamentary Health Spokesperson, described the ANC’s health policy as ‘a minefield of paradoxes.’

Dr Rabinowitz said:

"The ANC’s health policy is like walking in a minefield of paradoxes. It’s like being in Wonderland and if it continues in its present vane, it will be as much use to the people of South Africa as the Mad Hatters Tea Party was to Alice in Wonderland."

"Not for a lack of commitment from all players, from the Minister to the lowliest opposition MP, but because it is based upon a system that is designed to fail.

Dr Rabinowitz said that the IFP supported the Health Budget Vote because it had faith in the integrity and commitment of officials but changes needed to be made to the way in which health services were delivered.

"If we genuinely want to deliver services to the people, we need a system that is simple, clear and above all accountable. How else does it become efficient? Ours is none of the above."

"Our failure to deal with the AIDS crisis effectively is a barometer of the weakness of the system. There are knowledgeable people in South Africa who know the root of our problems. They have workable solutions but they need more recognition and the AIDS plan needs better management and co-ordination."

Dr Rabinowitz called for greater openness over HIV/AIDS and proposed providing incentives for people to find out their HIV status. Migrancy and trucking needed specific solutions, as did the custom of multiple sex partners.

Addressing the issue of delivery of health services, Dr Rabinowitz said:

"All aspects of health delivery require favourable incentives, and there are ways of offering such incentives which would allow competition and freedom of choice while regulating to ensure minimum standards."

"By contrast, nothing could be more Wonderlandish than Dr Nkomo’s pointing his lance at the provinces and threatening to make them vanish so that national and local government can offer an efficient, equitable National Health Service."

Turning to the issue GMO’s, Dr Rabinowitz said: 

"Already the genie is out of the bottle. All we can do is to try and keep up with its magic. Greater commitment from government and the Health Department are essential and we should urgently review all legislation regarding food labelling and production to make it Y2K and bio engineering compatible."

In conclusion, Dr Rabinowitz said:

"There is a depressing list of additional problems…There is the bizarre approach to Foreign Qualified Doctors, whereby only Cubans are welcomed to our shores...There is the abysmal failure of the Alternative Health Council to fulfil its role or to discipline fake or corrupt practitioners; the absence of any significant information systems, the ongoing theft of medicines, the unresolved confusion with regard to registration of alternative health products, the outpouring of nurses, collapsing hospitals, clinics without medicines, the rising cost of medical aids, backlogs at MCC, the stalled SAMMDRA Bill, the unnecessary fight over patent rights, lack of security for doctors and nurses…."

For a full copy of Dr Rabinowitz’s speech please call 083 506 8639

For Further Information: Dr Ruth Rabinowitz MP 082 579 3698

IFP Parliamentary Media Unit, Cape Town 021 403 3965