The Department of Health is the executive department of the South African government which is assigned to health matters.

Vision

A long and healthy life for all South Africans

Mission

To improve health status through the prevention of illnesses and the promotion of healthy lifestyles and to consistently improve the healthcare delivery system by focusing on access, equity, efficiency, quality and sustainability.

Health Priorities

National Health Insurance

The National Health Insurance (NHI) is a financing system that will make sure that all citizens of South Africa (and legal long-term residents) are provided with essential healthcare, regardless of their employment status and ability to make a direct monetary contribution to the NHI Fund.

 

HIV and AIDS and Tuberculosis

HIV, AIDS and Tuberculosis contribute significantly to the burden of disease faced by South Africans. This is particularly true for poor and vulnerable groups.

This is why the government has decided to put a huge effort into addressing HIV and AIDS and TB in an integrated manner. The most important strategy to combat these diseases is the HIV and AIDS Counselling and Testing (HCT) Campaign. The HCT campaign will scale up the integrated prevention strategy based on:

o behaviour change
o  use of barrier methods
o  providing medical male circumcision
o  scaling up syndrome management of STI
o   early prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT).     

 Primary Health Care

 To strengthen the health system, the department needs to undertake a number of equally important initiatives. This includes the need to change health service delivery from a curative model to one that promotes cost-effective primary healthcare (PHC) as close to the community and households as possible. This must be supported by strong enhancements in management and supervision of facilities. The department, with the help of key partners, will develop and implement a model for delivering PHC services that gives incentives for health promotion and disease prevention at the household and community level. The department will determine the sphere of government that should be responsible for delivering PHC services and environmental health services at local level. 

 Maternal and child health

The department will use the primary healthcare (PHC) approach to provide early and quality ante- and postnatal services as well as essential infant and child health services and nutritional advice. This will reduce the high maternal and child mortality rates in the country.