JOHANNESBURG - Health Systems Trust CEO Dr Themba Moeti says they would have liked to hear President Cyril Ramaphosa say a bit more about South Africa's ailing health system.
Nothing much was said about the sector in the president's SONA address on Thursday.
Moeti says it is not enough that hospitals will be exempted from power cuts, they still need more back up power.
"Initially I was struck by the fact that one of the first things the president mentioned was the covid pandemic impact on health and economy," he says.
"He correctly went on to speak about the energy crisis because that is a major crisis affecting every sector," he says.
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According to Moeti, hospitals and health facilities being exempt from power cuts is just as important.
"We hope that it will be rolled out quickly," he says.
Moeti calls for appropriate backup power systems as power will fail for other reasons besides load-shedding.