Len Deacon, Executive Principal Officer of Topmed, looks ahead to 2010 and sees exciting, but challenging times for the South African healthcare industry.
“2010 is going to be a year of positive change that will affect all levels of South Africa's health environment. It will be year when everyone from patients to specialists becomes aware that there is no future in a ‘business as usual’ approach, especially if we want to meet the healthcare needs of all South Africans” comments Deacon. “There is a strong move from curative to preventative - the time of just treating illnesses is over. Now is the time to focus on making people healthier and taking a holistic approach. I foresee a paradigm shift as GPs take back the role for which they have been trained. Patients won’t find it so easy to go straight to specialists anymore and I think this is a good thing. A change in government’s healthcare policy is on the cards, and we in the private sector have to play our part to ensure sustainable healthcare for all South Africans.”
Deacon sees change happening on a number of different levels and predicts that the first steps will be taken during February's Budget speech.
“We are no longer speculating about if a national health system will be introduced. The only question is when it will happen. My prediction is that when Minister Pravin Gordin speaks about health in his Budget speech on February 17 it will be to announce the beginning of an enabling legislative framework for health policy reform.”
“The challenge for government is how to harness the private and public systems to deliver what we as a country need without too much of a financial burden on the diminishing pool of taxpayers. This means far-reaching changes including spending money on skills development so that the tax base can increase. The recommendations of the King 3 Report must apply to government as well as the private sector. When it comes to good governance, we all need to be aspiring to the same levels of excellence.”
Deacon foresees big changes for medical schemes as well, with fewer players remaining in the market after a year during which he predicts a number of mergers and acquisitions.
“It's not a bad thing," he says. “Remember, a medical scheme is not for profit. It is like a stokvel that you can trust, belonging to all its members. In Topmed, for example, our Board of Trustees is 100% elected by the members, and increasing our membership base with well thought-out mergers and acquisitions can only be a good thing. The pooled resources of our increased membership base will certainly benefit the individual members.”
Deacon also believes that medical aid schemes have an important role to play as they support patients in the healthcare regime they choose to follow.
“We have a diversity of cultures in South Africa and we need to make sure that we engage with alternative healthcare providers including traditional healers. As the healthcare landscape changes, we are entering an era of shared decision-making, where GPs and other healthcare providers will not just treat illnesses but make people healthier. As a medical aid, we will be expecting doctors to be treating the cause and not just the symptoms. This means, for example, that a patient with back problems should be offered surgery as a last resort after alternatives such as improved diet or an exercise regime have been attempted.”
Another big change on the cards, according to Deacon, is more efficient use of technology to empower individuals to take responsibility for their own healthcare needs.
“It may not happen this year, but I foresee each person having an individual, electronic health record. This will help bring the costs of health care down. Many investigative and diagnostic test and procedures will only have to be done once and doctors will have access to all the information they need to make informed decisions about their patients’ health.”
Deacon believes the relationship between patient and doctor needs to be protected. Doctors’ rights to treating patients also need to be supported within the financial constraints we have.
Deacon concludes “We need to change the way we think about the challenges we face in the healthcare industry in this country. As Albert Einstein observed, problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them. I'm inspired by the changes that I see coming as government and private sector work together more closely to realise the dream we share of healthcare for all South Africans."