The Department of Health says General Practitioners (GPs) will be the first point of call for many patients under the National Health Insurance(NHI).
Deputy Director General in the Health Department, Dr Anban Pillay made the point at the BD Healthcare Summit in Sandton on Friday.
He says they have consulted with a number of GPs ahead of the full implementation of the NHI.
Pillay says they seem eager to be part of the National Health Insurance.
He says: “We’ve underused GPs in the health system because we have basically created a specialist based system which is costing the country a lot of money. I think GPs can do a lot more – so we would like to bring GPs back to what they should be doing… and I think a lot of GPs are keen to do that.”
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