The healthcare data needs to be democratised, and made accessible.

South Africa’s healthcare system needs an overhaul. The horror stories from government hospitals hit the headlines all too frequently, from doctors and nurses having to pay for patients’ food out of their own pockets because there’s no money for catering, to heavily pregnant women sleeping on the floor. And while private healthcare rarely causes such outrage, the systems there are also far from perfect.

That’s the opinion of Dr Nicholas Crisp, deputy director-general for the NHI at the Department of Health.