In Practice

Managing the healthcare demand-supply gap during and after COVID-19: The need to review the approach to healthcare priority-setting in South Africa

G C Solanki, T Wilkinson, E Daviaud, D Besada, C R Tamandjou Tchuem, S Docrat, S M Cleary

Abstract


Healthcare demands are rising globally, and regardless of the approach to financing and delivering healthcare services, no country can meet all the healthcare demands of its population. The demand-supply gap for healthcare services in South Africa (SA) is large, particularly for the public sector. The objectives of this article are to examine some of the underlying factors contributing to this gap, and how the COVID- 19 pandemic is likely to impact on them, and to describe why SA needs to adopt an explicit and equity-informed approach to healthcare priority-setting to assist in managing the gap.


Authors' affiliations

G C Solanki, Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa; Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa; NMG Consultants and Actuaries, Cape Town, South Africa

T Wilkinson, Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa

E Daviaud, Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa

D Besada, Health Systems Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa

C R Tamandjou Tchuem, Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa

S Docrat, Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa

S M Cleary, Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Full Text

PDF (123KB)

Keywords

Priority-setting; Universal health coverage; National Health Insurance; South Africa

Cite this article

South African Medical Journal 2021;111(1):20-22. DOI:10.7196/SAMJ.2020.v111i11.15239

Article History

Date submitted: 2020-11-24
Date published: 2020-11-24

Article Views

Abstract views: 5779
Full text views: 3081

Comments on this article

*Read our policy for posting comments here