public-health-researcher

""When I started working as a physician in South Africa, I clearly saw the consequences of inequality. The malnutrition and tuberculosis that I encountered among black patients occurred to a much lesser extent – or not at all – in the white population. Since then, my work has involved finding ways to understand and correct inequality.”"

""You cannot be born and raised in South Africa without seeing different forms of injustice every day. That is what sparked my interest in research and what still dominates my research today. My interest in equality issues also motivated the work I did in reproductive health and maternity care and especially my work related to gender and health.”"

"This is another example of inequality in South Africa. The private health care system accounts for about 50 per cent of annual health care spending in South Africa but serves only about 15 per cent of the population."

""We discovered that the competitive situation was not as good as it should be. In addition, there are no performance measures regarding health in South Africa, so people do not know the quality of the care they pay for. This is a major shortcoming, unlike the completely different situation in Sweden, where health results are public.”"

"Having just finished the tenth year of the project, we have investigated the extent to which we have reached our goal – and the answer is that we have done well. We have recruited over 200 African doctors, of which almost half have obtained degrees and work in academia and with research in Africa."

""Building capacity is a long-term investment though. We are at the stage where we try to ensure that everyone who has obtained a degree within the CARTA framework has a future in research and that the institutions where they work support research. So this very satisfying work continues.”"

""Good governance in our health-care system is “patchy"

""You need to see this as a 10-year project"."

""There’s some political leadership that’s needed, and then there are some technical interventions that are needed. It’s about having a plan and getting people around the table”"

""It must be possible to review it and to work out a more manageable process around procurement. And procurement is particularly important because it’s sort of what keeps things turning over. It’s also the space where vested interests can be exercised”"

""The argument from the government is that the NHI Act is simply setting in place the fund, that’s all it’s supposed to do. I understand that … and it’s a legitimate argument. The problem is that it doesn’t tell people what it means. It’s that kind of lack of stewardship, lack of communicating a vision.”"

""The way the South African health system is set up currently is that the department is responsible for stewarding the system, for making sure that the right legislation exists, the right checks and balances exist, and the right controls exist”"

""I think that at least in part, they haven’t [fulfilled that responsibility]. It’s a complex thing to do; I’m not suggesting it’s easy. But I don’t think they’ve had their eye on the right place”"

"What our report does acknowledge is that there are many good people in the health system who actually want to see improvements, who are committed to good leadership and management and governance"

""But I think we need leadership to kind of show the way and one of the first things that we felt was important was to revisit what our public values are, what are the social goals that we want to set for the health system, and can we all agree on that and move towards that? [We need] that kind of leadership and stewardship from the political and national government level.”"

""That collaboration also resulted in Professor Fonn agreeing to be appointed an honorary doctor at Sahlgrenska Academy in 2015. So we are well aware of the outstanding knowledge and commitment Professor Fonn possesses and look forward to developing our SDG3 efforts together with the rest of the academy and the University in both teaching and research”"