1. BRIEFING TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH THE NATIONAL HEALTH AMENDMENT BILL 30 January 2013

2. Background
The Bill was adopted by the Portfolio Committee on Health in August 2012.
The Bill was then referred to the Select Committee on Social Services of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
The NCOP held a number of briefings of the Provincial Legislatures and public hearings in the Provinces.
The National Department of Health (“NDOH”) provided the NCOP with technical support during these briefings of the Provincial Legislatures and the public hearings.
The negotiating mandates were finalised and the NCOP then adopted the Bill (with amendments) in December 2012.

3. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee
Clause 1:
The definition of the Board has been amended to mean “the Office of Health Standards Compliance Board established in terms of section 79A”.
The definition of the “environmental health practitioner” in paragraph (c) has been deleted.
The numbering from paragraph (d) to (h) has changed to (c) to (g) due to the deletion of paragraph (c).

4. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee cont
Clause 5
- Section 79 - Subsection 3 has been removed from this section and placed in the section dealing with regulations.
- Section 79A - The heading of this section has been amended to read “Establishment of Office”.
- Subsection 1 has been substituted by the following subsection: “The Office of Health Standards Compliance Board is hereby established” and subsection 1 becomes subsection 2.
- Subsection 2 which is now subsection 3 has been amended to make the Board the Accounting Authority of the Office.

5. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee cont
Clause 5
- Section 79B has been amended by the addition of “nursing” in paragraph (a) of subsection 1 as one of the types of expertise required on the Board.
- Section 79C - Subsection 4 has been amended by substituting the word “period” with the word “term”.
- Section 79H – This section has been amended by replacing “Minister” with the “Board”.
Furthermore, subsection 5 has been amended to ensure that the Board may in consultation with the Minister, designate another employee to act in the position of the CEO in the event the CEO is unable to perform his or her functions.

6. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee cont
Clause 5
- Section 79I – Paragraph (a) of subsection 1 has been amended by removing “ accounting officer” from the CEO as the Board now is the Accounting Authority.
- Section 79I is also amended by the addition of subsections (4) and (5).
Subsection 4 compels the CEO to take appropriate action to ensure the implementation of the findings and recommendations of the Ombud while subsection 5 allows the CEO to seek intervention of the Minister; MEC or member of Municipal Council responsible for Health in this respect.

7. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee cont
Clause 5
- Section 80 – Subsection 1 has been amended by replacing the word “ appoint” with the word “designate”.
- subsection 3 has been amended by the insertion of the word “designated” after the words “health officer” while the word “appointed” in line 37 has been replaced with the word “designated”.
- Paragraph (a) of subsection 4 has been amended by the insertion of “designation” after the words “certificate of”.

8. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee cont
Clause 5
- Section 81 – Subsection 3 has been amended by removing the word “ and” at the end of paragraph (b) and putting it at the end of paragraph (c).
- subsection 3 has also been amended by the insertion of paragraph (d) which makes the Ombud report and account to the Minister.
- Section 81A – Subsection 10 has been deleted and subsections 11 and 12 become 10 and 11 respectively.
- Section 81B – Subsection 4 has been amended to allow the Ombud to submit the report to the Minister for tabling in Parliament.

9. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee cont
Clause 5
- Section 82A – Paragraph (e) of subsection 1 been amended by the deletion of “a fine of R 10 Million” and replaced by a phrase empowering the Minister to determine the amount of fine from time to time in the Government Gazette.
- Section 83 – This section has been amended by the insertion of subsection 5 to allow only the health officers who are registered as environmental health practitioners to carry out the functions in this section.

10. Amendments agreed to by Select Committee cont
Clause 6
- Section 90 – This section has been amended by the insertion of the subsection 1A (original subsection 3 of section 79) to empower the Minister to prescribe different norms and standards after consultation with the relevant regulatory authorities.
Clause 7
- Paragraph (e) of this clause has been amended by the replacement of the words “Control of Office” with the words “Establishment of Office to reflect the amendments made in the heading of section 79A.

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