Inspanning all the oxen – new Health Foundation

Abstract

The Western Cape is pioneering an independent fund-raising foundation that will help its provincial health department to reduce the regional burden of disease through wellness programmes, infrastructure upgrades and mutually beneficial public-private partnerships. Initially aimed at reducing, among other things, what Health MEC Theuns Botha estimates as a R1 billion backlog in infrastructure maintenance, the multi-faceted strategy (as embodied by the new Health Foundation) is a ‘holistic, all hands on deck’ approach. Speaking at the opening of the Foundation’s offices in Stellenbosch on 4 February this year, its CEO, Dr Joshua Fisher, said accelerating and spreading wellness programmes through employer programmes at the workplace and at schools, replicating the hugely successful Red Cross Children’s War Memorial Hospital fund-raising model at other facilities, and up-skilling (or merely rendering functional) health facility boards would be pivotal. The Foundation was also positioning itself to broker ‘significant deals with private companies’ to enable the generation of rental income and fees.