Private Practice in Southern Africa - Towards a Better Future

Abstract

A very informative, educational and stimulating conference was recently held at Sun City between 25-27 February 1994. The Conference was organised by the recently formed National Association of Individual Practitioner Associations (NAIPA) in conjunction with National General Practitioner's Group (NGPG). About two hundred and fifty delegates and their spouses attended this conference. The five programme sessions covered all aspects of the main problem areas affecting private practice in South Africa. Throughout the conference the main theme was not about money and the practice of medicine but how Managed Health Care can help the underprivileged, the poor, the needy and the at-risk individuals who are presently using state facilities but who would like to benefit from private care and all its advantages of personalised, comprehensive, continuous, and community-based health care. The emphasis throughout the conference was on the importance and the value of preserving the future of private practice by reinstating the control of the delivery of cost effective and high quality health care with the providers of health care services to the advantage of the patients.