Busamed CEO Thabiso Buku calls for urgent collaboration between private and public healthcare sectors to address South Africa's escalating healthcare crisis.
Image: Thirdman / Pexels
South Africa’s private healthcare sector cannot afford to isolate itself from the growing crisis in public healthcare, Busamed Gateway Hospital CEO Thabiso Buku said on Wednesday, calling for stronger collaboration between private hospitals and the state as pressure mounts on the country’s healthcare system ahead of National Health Insurance (NHI) reforms.
Speaking during a joint media briefing hosted by the South African Medical Association (SAMA) and Busamed ahead of the upcoming SAMA Health Summit, Buku said healthcare providers had a responsibility that extended beyond profits and private patients.
“We can’t sit back and say we are only looking after less than 10 million of the population,” Buku said.
“Our challenge is to provide healthcare to the people of this country broadly and generally.”
Buku said South Africa continued to face “huge inequality” in healthcare provision between the private and public sectors, with millions depending on an underfunded and overstretched state healthcare system.
“We have a large populace in our country that is served through the public sector, which has its own challenges, underfunded, burdened and facing inefficiencies,” he said.
“But critically, there are many people who are unable to access quality healthcare because of the pressure the public sector has to deal with.”
He said private healthcare groups needed to actively pursue partnerships with the public sector to expand access to healthcare services and improve patient outcomes.
“As the private sector, we don’t sit back,” Buku said.
“We need to look at how we collaborate and partner with the public sector because our challenge is to provide healthcare to the people of this country.”
Buku said Busamed, one of South Africa’s younger private hospital groups had embraced innovation, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and data-driven healthcare systems as part of efforts to improve efficiency and clinical care.
“The advantage of coming in later is that we can adopt innovation and technology much quicker than companies with legacy systems,” he said.
He explained that technology and data analytics increasingly informed decisions around clinical outcomes, infrastructure investment and staffing.
“We are driven by data to give us a more scientific approach in arriving at better outcomes, whether it is for the patient or for the business,” he said.
However, Buku stressed that healthcare innovation meant little if it failed to improve lives at community level.
“Whatever we do, if it doesn’t make a difference to the community, it doesn’t mean anything,” he said.
“The focus must always remain on the patient and the community.”
Reflecting on conversations with nurses during International Nurses Day commemorations, Buku said healthcare workers often carried the emotional burdens of the communities they served long before patients entered hospital doors.
“Their work doesn’t start in the hospital,” he said.
“It starts in the community because that is where they come from. People talk to them in the community. As a healthcare practitioner, your work is life-based in the community.”
His remarks formed part of a broader conversation about the future of healthcare in South Africa as the country continues debating the implementation of NHI and broader healthcare reform.
SAMA chairperson Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa warned that the healthcare system remained under severe strain and was not ready for NHI implementation in its current state.
“Healthcare professionals across the country are working under extreme and difficult conditions to deliver care to millions of South Africans,” Mzukwa said.
He pointed to persistent shortages of healthcare workers, deteriorating infrastructure, equipment shortages and operational inefficiencies, particularly in rural and under-served communities.
Mzukwa said uncertainty surrounding NHI implementation continued to create anxiety across the healthcare sector.
“Questions remain around implementation, funding, governance, the future role of the private sector, human resource capacity and the preparedness of the public healthcare system,” he said.
He added that while healthcare reform was necessary, it needed to be approached “transparently, inclusively and pragmatically”.
“We cannot build a future healthcare system without honestly confronting the current state of the system,” he said.
SAMA vice-chairperson Dr Zanele Bikitsha said public healthcare reform could not focus only on funding models while ignoring the condition of the healthcare system itself.
“Healthcare reform is not only about funding. It is about whether or not the system itself can deliver consistent, equitable, excellent and accessible care,” she said.
Bikitsha said healthcare workers continued operating under immense pressure amid infrastructure backlogs, administrative inefficiencies and inconsistent access to essential healthcare services in vulnerable communities.
She called for stronger investment in healthcare workers, improved governance and accountability structures, and better healthcare infrastructure.
“Patients and healthcare workers alike deserve healthcare facilities that are safe, functional and properly equipped,” she said.
SAMA CEO Dr Mzulungile Nodikida said artificial intelligence and digital technologies could help bridge healthcare access gaps, particularly in public healthcare facilities struggling to attract specialist services.
“We are very clear that healthcare is no exception to technological transformation,” Nodikida said.
He said AI could assist public hospitals through remote specialist support, particularly in fields such as radiology.
“You can have specialists reporting remotely and guiding healthcare workers from wherever they are,” he said.
“Those are the kinds of systems we are advocating for.”
Nodikida described the upcoming SAMA Health Summit as more than just another healthcare conference, saying it was intended to launch a broader national and continental conversation about the future of healthcare.
The summit, themed “Innovate to Elevate”, will take place in Durban from May 22 to 24 and is expected to bring together government representatives, healthcare professionals, academics, labour organisations, civil society and private sector stakeholders to discuss healthcare reform, innovation and the future of healthcare delivery in South Africa.