As part of Public Service Month, government is set to host a public servants health symposium in the Mgungundlovu District Municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday.
The symposium will focus on the impact of the new National Health Insurance (NHI) currently being piloted in Pietermaritzburg, the Department of Public Service and Administration said on Wednesday.
The NHI is a health financing system that is designed to pool funds to provide access to quality affordable personal health services and to ensure universal health coverage for all South Africans based on their health needs, irrespective of their socio-economic status.
The initiative is being implemented in phases over a 14-year period which started in 2012 and will be established through the creation of a single fund that will buy services on behalf of the entire population, through a combination of various mandatory prepayment sources, primarily based on general taxes.
During the symposium public servants at the municipality will also have an opportunity to engage with the Public Service and Administration Deputy Minister Chana Pilane- Majake, the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government as well as representatives of the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) and the Department of Health.
The symposium forms part of the month-long Public Service Month activities planned across the country to serve as a mechanism to assess the quality of service delivery with a view to improve government services and to comply with the standards of the Batho Pele Principles.
This year’s theme is: “Thuma Mina: Taking Public Service to the People: Batho Pele: “We Belong, We Care, We Serve””.
September has been earmarked by Cabinet to reignite, recommit and rededicate public servants to the principles of Batho Pele; improve the morale and inculcate a sense of pride in being a public servant. – SAnews.gov.za
