National Health Insurance - knowledge, attitude and perceptions of speech-language therapists

Abstract

Background: The South African government signed the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into effect on 15th of May 2024 to ensure that all citizens have access to high-quality healthcare, regardless of their financial situation. While this initiative will impact all healthcare professionals, there is limited information on how speech-language therapists (SLTs) perceive its implementation in South Africa.

Aim: The study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of SLTs in the public and private healthcare sectors related to service provision regarding the implementation of the NHI.

Setting: This study was conducted virtually via Zoom (Zoom Video Communication, San Jose, California, United States) and Teams (Microsoft Teams, 2017) with SLTs in their respective settings in South Africa.

Methods: The descriptive, qualitative research design involved virtual semi-structured interviews with 10 SLTs. NVivo software (QSR International, Victoria, Australia) was used to analyse the data, as guided by Tesch’s content analysis method.

Results: Eleven sub-themes emerged related to the three themes of knowledge (4 sub-themes), attitudes (4 sub-themes) and perceived impact (3 sub-themes) of NHI implementation on SLT services.

Conclusion: The study highlights SLTs’ knowledge, gaps and concerns about the impact of NHI implementation on their profession, emphasising the personal and professional areas that need to be addressed for its successful rollout.

Contribution: Understanding SLTs’ opinions will help address their concerns during the planning stages of integrating them into the NHI. This will lead to an equitable distribution of sufficient practitioners and ensure that many people benefit from its implementation.