Opinion How the government is rolling the dice on everyone’s health The fallout from a failed healthcare system will be catastrophic and there is no back-up plan BL PREMIUM

Winston Churchill once said “Failure to plan, is planning to fail”. Planning is, however, not a guarantee of success. The SA government has proved itself quite adept at drafting plans and policies to fix everything from SAA and Eskom to the ailing economy. What has proved elusive is the capabilities to implement these plans.

Now a grand plan to solve the public health system crisis has been launched with much fanfare. But it remains a plan, one that will only succeed if it can be implemented successfully. It seems the future of the entire health system is being bet on the government being able to implement its plan and turn the public health system around, without even waiting to see if it makes any difference.