Focus on the ‘how’ and start piloting NHI now – former UK health chief

A deeply pragmatic approach to national health insurance that favours patient-choice not ideology and an incentive-based relationship that ‘avoids treating the private sector like a one night stand,’ are vital to South Africa’s success, a key architect of universal health coverage in the United Kingdom says. Dr Mark Britnell, Director General of Health in the UK from 2007-2009, was speaking to private hospitals, medical aid schemes and international experts in the field at the annual conference of the (private) Hospital Association of South Africa, (HASA), held on Cape Town’s foreshore last month