Medical Chronicle November/December 2013 | Page 10

ADVANCING HEALTHCARE
TOGETHER
Hospital Association of South Africa

2013 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Post Conference Review
As South Africa moves towards improving access and
quality of healthcare across both the public and private
healthcare sectors, the theme for the Hospital Association
of South Africa’s (HASA) 2013 annual conference was
appropriately titled: “Advancing Healthcare Together.”
The conference was held at the Cape Town International
Convention Centre from 28-30 October 2013.

For the ?rst time, this year’s conference included a dedicated
and parallel stream on quality – The Quality Improvement
Summit - delivered in partnership with the Best Care Always!
(BCA) campaign and the Institute of Healthcare Improvement
(IHI).

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LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS INCLUDED:
“The public and private healthcare sectors in South Africa
have similar service delivery objectives and hence the need
for them to share their service platforms more collaboratively.
Finding common solutions to the country’s most pressing
healthcare challenges is therefore a compelling imperative,”
said Chairperson of HASA, Melanie Da Costa. “The one area of
profound commonality between the public and private sector
is quality and the 2013 HASA Conference focused on ?nding
ways to raise the bar in healthcare quality and delivery.”

“An important focus of the conference was on how to make
healthcare more affordable, exploring the challenges and
opportunities of extracting ef?ciencies in the current operating
environment,” said HASA CEO, Dr Dumisani Bomela. “Of
course, all of this takes place as our healthcare system faces
challenges such as the severe shortage of specialists.”

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The HASA conference brought together some of the best minds
in the healthcare industry, providing a forum to generate new
perspectives and solutions, as well as deepen debates around
current challenges facing the South African healthcare sector.
A strong line-up of local and international speakers shared
their experiences addressing topics such as how to increase
the number of South Africans with access to private medical
cover; the proposed Competition Commission market inquiry
into the private healthcare sector; how to extract ef?ciencies in
healthcare and the business case for quality.

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SA Minister of Health,
Dr Aaron Motsoaledi

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Minister of Health, South Africa, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi;
Professor Andrew Street, Professor of Health Economics at
the University of York, UK;
Dr Adheet Gogate, Managing Director, HealthBridge
Advisors Private Limited, India;
Dr David Munch, Senior Vice President, Healthcare
Performance Partners, US;
Professor Frank Feeley, Chair of the Department of
International Health of Boston University School of Public
Health, US;
Mr Greg Harman, Senior Managing Director, Economic
and Financial Consulting, FTI Consulting, UK;
Ms Margaret E. Guerin-Calvert, a founding director of USbased Compass Lexecon, US;
Mr Kevin Lings, Chief Economist at Stanlib;
Mr Barry Childs, CEO Lighthouse Actuarial Consulting and
CareGauge;
Professor Steve Reid, Director & Chair: Primary Health
Care Directorate, UCT, Faculty of Health Sciences;
Ms Shivani Ramjee, Academic in Actuarial Science at the
University of Cape Town;
Dr Martin de Villiers, Executive: Funder Relations ICON;
Dr Brigid Strachan, Consultant Health Care Financing
and Human Resources for Health, part time University of
Stellenbosch Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences;
Dr Terence Carter, Deputy Director-General in the National
Department of Health South Africa: Hospitals Tertiary
Service & Workforce Management;
Professor Bongani Mayosi, Professor of Medicine and
Head of the Department of Medicine at Groote Schuur
Hospital and University of Cape Town;
Dr Adri Kok, President of the Faculty of Consulting
Physicians of SA and Specialist Physician practicing
medicine at the Union and Clinton Hospitals in Alberton,
South of Johannesburg, Gauteng;
Dr Nkaki Matlala, Executive: Government and stakeholder
relations, Mediclinic;
Professor Sam Mokgokong, Health Professions Council
South Africa;

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Dr Nicholas Crisp, Executive Manager of Benguela (a
business unit of EOH);
Mr Anthony Norton, Director of Nortons Inc;
Mr Tembinkosi Bonakele, Acting Commissioner,
Competition Commission;
Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, Executive Director of Discovery
Holdings Limited;
Dr Richard Friedland, Group Chief Executive Of?cer of
Netcare Limited;
Mr Stavros Nicolaou, Senior Executive, Strategic Trade
Development, Aspen Pharmacare;
Mr Brand Pretorius, Director of companies.

INCREASING MEDICAL COVER TO 30% OF POPULATION
WOULD RELIEVE PUBLIC HEALTHCARE SECTOR
If medical scheme membership increased from 17% to 30%
of the population, it could help relieve pressure on the public
health system, according to Barry Childs, CEO of CareGauge
and Lighthouse Actuarial Consulting. Childs outlined ways
for the private healthcare sector to increase its coverage by
making it more affordable to belong to a medical scheme.
“We’d all like universal healthcare coverage to be more
equitable and effective,” said Childs. “There is a lot more we
can do within the private sector to improve access, affordability
and equity.” He added that medical scheme regulatory reform
which had been proposed years ago was critical to making
medical cover more affordable.

MC, Bongani Bingwa and HASA CEO,
Dr Dumisani Bomela