REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA COMBINED SECOND PERIODIC REPORT UNDER THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON HUMAN AND PEOPLE`S RIGHTS and INITIAL REPORT UNDER THE PROTOCOL TO THE AFRICAN CHARTER ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN AFRICA budget and human resources, to facilitate quicker responses to local needs. Public health consumes around 11% of the government's total budget, which is allocated and mostly spent by the nine provinces. 277. The Department of Health is focused on implementing an improved health system, which involves an emphasis focus on public health, as well as improving the functionality and management of the system through stringent budget and expenditure monitoring. Known as the "10-point plan", the strategic programme is improving hospital infrastructure and human resources management, as well as procurement of the necessary equipment and skills. 278. Under this plan, health facilities – such as nursing colleges and tertiary hospitals – are being upgraded and rebuilt to lay the way for the implementation of the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme. The NHI is intended to bring about reform that will improve service provision and health care delivery. It will promote equity and efficiency to ensure that all South Africans have access to affordable, quality health care services regardless of their employment status and ability to make a direct monetary contribution to the NHI Fund. The NHI will be phased in over 14 years. In 2012/13, the government earmarked R1-billion to its pilot projects. Apart from infrastructure and management overhauls, another factor for ensuring the success of the NHI will be the strict regulation of the sector to make it more affordable to all South Africans. 279. During the period under review, new hospitals were commissioned in several rural districts, for example Dilokong, Nkhensani, Vryburg and Moses Kotane Hospitals. A total of 29 other hospitals in rural and urban areas are currently under construction, while 17 others are in the planning and design stage. These facilities provide a comprehensive package of health services that includes HIV care. 280. In the area of improving the health system effectiveness, substantial steps have been taken towards establishment of the National Health Insurance System. A Green Paper has been produced and released publicly for input. The Department of Health has conducted an audit of service quality in over 75% of health facilities and improvement plans are now being developed. The Department has also developed a human resource strategy which links intake of health professionals to projected demand. An audit of all 122 nursing colleges is underway with 45 of the target 105 already refurbished. 281. Significant progress has been made towards strengthening the Primary Health Care (PHC) system for South Africa with a focus on three initiatives, namely placing a group of clinical specialists in each health district to strengthen maternal and child health, strengthening school health services and deployment of a PHC team in each municipal ward. To this end, government has reoriented 5,000 Community Health Workers (CHWs) who are part of the PHC teams in the key priority health programmes of HIV and TB and maternal and child health. 81