Industry News

Worrall-Clare's Human Touch

20 November 2008

In Categories: Industry News , Industry News > General , Industry News > Patients

HASA CEO spends some quality time with Financial Mail's penman Shoks Mzolo at The Rosebank, Johannesburg. Adv Kurt Worrall-Clare chairs the SA Private Healthcare Forum and chats about his roots and vision and passion about biomedical ethics and professionalism in healthcare.

  Barbara Hogan's appointment as new health minister came as a surprise, but she's fast winning fans. Kurt Worrall-Clare, CEO at the Hospital Association of SA, is one.
Though Hogan has a tough task ahead - not least in sorting out the mess left by predecessor Manto Tshabalala-Msimang - she has already won approval from the civil and private sectors as she attempts a turnaround in health care, says the 36-year-old Worrall-Clare.
HOW HE CHILLS
 Loves arts and culture, sports, exploring SA and reading
Hiring Hogan was "wise", he says, a clear vote of confidence. Not many miss Tshabalala-Msimang.
Worrall-Clare, who also chairs the Private Healthcare Forum, is adept at dialogue, resilient and doesn't let petulant remarks by government or medical aid bosses deter him. This is what I pick up over a below-par meal at The Rosebank.
Service at the recently revamped hotel is good, though, and we admire the decor and atmosphere. And the inclusion of garlic, lemon and the mighty beetroot in the menu draws giggles from both of us.
Son of a pastor, Worrall-Clare was born in Harare. His family moved to Johannesburg when he was a toddler. Soon after, they moved to Durban's Pinetown, where he grew up in a family of three. After matriculating, he took up Bible studies. "The Clare family can trace its lineage back to the 11th century. Most of them were priests or teachers."
He contemplated entering the ministry but his mother advised him to think about a back-up career. "I ended up doing church studies and law at varsity simultaneously," says a man who describes himself as "eccentric".
By age 26, he was an advocate. He is now pursuing a master's in applied ethics, with a focus on biomedical ethics. And in addition to his hospital association duties, Worrall-Clare teaches health law to doctors and nurses. So, like his forebears, he's a teacher, too.
Halfway through lunch, he launches into the subject of the mooted national health insurance (NHI), which is aimed at universal care - something that requires public-private partnerships. The latter haven't taken off as they should. "That's because government-private relations are fraught with distrust."
Though he reluctantly admits that private hospitals are expensive, Worrall-Clare says: "We have to bridge the divide between the haves and the have-nots. My frustration is that not everyone sees this. Those who do are distrustful, which is disheartening.
"The NHI is long overdue," he adds, sighing in frustration. The project, supposed to have gone live in 2006, has yet to get off the ground. But Worrall-Clare's beef is that health insurance tackles only one aspect: funding.
"SA should learn from the likes of Uganda and Kenya, which despite tiny budgets are doing better on HIV/Aids, cancer and other burdens of disease," he says, sipping another cup of coffee (I try in vain to entice him to have cheesecake).
In a veiled reference to Tshabalala-Msimang, Worrall-Clare expresses his frustration at missing "a lot over the past nine years". But he quickly adds that with new leadership at the helm, now is the time to rebuild the health system.
"We're not dealing with shortages of resources and staff. Everyone is talking about spare beds and capacity at hospitals. But we haven't asked the question: do we have a well-thought-out programme or plan to take advantage of this spare capacity?"
Switching to uncaring nurses and doctors, he says: "We need to be more sensitive to a patient's needs. There's no proactive engagement with patients." He is talking from experience: last year he spent weeks in a hospital bed. "We need to put the human touch back into the system. It's not too late for our doctors and nurses to learn to care and communicate properly."
Clearly, this man has more than just health law to teach our nurses and doctors.