EWN reports that government is said to be intensifying efforts geared at implementing South Africa's national health insurance (NHI) scheme.

This was announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his response on Thursday to the debate on his state of the nation address. The president stressed that access to quality healthcare was key to improving the quality of lives of all South Africans. "We are committed to the provision of quality healthcare for all regardless of their ability to pay. We will therefore progressively implement the national health insurance, the NHI, as soon as the necessary legislation is approved by this Parliament," Ramaphosa stated. He advised that the government was preparing for the NHI's rollout through the national quality improvement plan. "We are improving the quality of care in our clinics, through the ideal clinic programme, using the capabilities of the electronic vaccination record system that we developed for Covid-19," the president indicated.

• Read the original of the short report in the above regard by Kevin Brandt at EWN

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