Doctors are delighted at the ruling of the High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday that legislation allowing the government to determine where health professionals can practise is unconstitutional.
The successful application by the trade union, Solidarity, the Alliance of South African Independent Practitioners Associations, the South African Private Practitioner Forum and the Hospital Association of SA is a setback for National Health Insurance (NHI), which relies on the certificate of need as the principle of central management that is a core pillar of the NHI Act .
Judge A Millar ruled that sections 36 to 40 of the NHI Act are invalid in their entirety.
Former SA Medical Association chair Dr Angelique Coetzee said doctors were pleased by the ruling.
This saga has been going on since 2003 and now, 21 years later, we finally have a verdict where it was ruled unconstitutional. Unfortunately, this judgment is also a blow to the whole NHI idea.
