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South Africa to get national health service

BMJ 1995; 311 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.311.6996.8a (Published 01 July 1995) Cite this as: BMJ 1995;311:8

South Africa is to get a new national health system, which will guarantee universal (and largely free) access to primary health care for “permanent residents.” The new system will use the existing public health sector bolstered by facilities in the private sector.

The minister of health, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, said that the aim was to redress the imbalance in health and access to health care caused by years of apartheid. The minister also recently announced a new committee to consider funding a national primary health care system.

The report on a new health system is open to consultation for two months, and the system is then intended to be phased in over five years. The report recommends sweeping changes to the present arrangements and dividing the country into …

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