{"id":92165,"date":"2025-10-28T18:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T18:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T19:20:09","slug":"health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals","title":{"rendered":"Health Department won&#8217;t turn away foreign nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, including foreign nationals.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp told Parliament\u2019s Standing Committee on Appropriations that the department does not account separately for treating undocumented migrants.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, he could not answer the committee&#8217;s question on how much is being spent to treat this specific category of patient.<\/p>\n<p>These questions arise in the wake of recent incidents involving attempts to block foreign nationals from accessing State hospitals and clinics amid frustrations over long queues and strained resources.<\/p>\n<p><b>ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE AND ENFORCEMENT<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Crisp reiterated that access to healthcare is guaranteed in the Constitution, and no one can be denied.<\/p>\n<p>He stated that it is up to the police to clamp down on attempts to stop foreign nationals from entering state facilities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fortunately, we have a very good working relationship with the police and they react quite quickly when we need help.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><b>NHI TO PROVIDE CLARITY ON SPENDING<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Crisp noted that once the National Health Insurance (NHI) comes into effect, there will be a better understanding of how many foreign nationals are accessing the system.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, around 35 million people are already registered on the DoH\u2019s outpatient registration system.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The system that is designed for NHI collects what is being spent on you, we will at that stage, in a couple of years from now, we will know what we are spending on whom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Crisp added that the NHI registration system will capture fingerprints and be linked directly to Home Affairs to verify who is being treated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, including foreign nationals. Deputy Director-General Nicholas Crisp told Parliament\u2019s Standing Committee on Appropriations that the department does not account separately for treating undocumented migrants. Therefore, he could not answer the committee&#8217;s question on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-92165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Health Department won&#039;t turn away foreign nationals - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, inclu ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Department won&#039;t turn away foreign nationals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, inclu ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T18:54:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-28T19:20:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Health Department won&#8217;t turn away foreign nationals\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:54:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-28T19:20:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals\"},\"wordCount\":284,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals\",\"name\":\"Health Department won't turn away foreign nationals - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-28T18:54:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-28T19:20:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, inclu ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Health Department won't turn away foreign nationals\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Health Department won&#8217;t turn away foreign nationals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Health Department won't turn away foreign nationals - South Africa","description":"The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, inclu ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Health Department won't turn away foreign nationals","og_description":"The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, inclu ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-10-28T18:54:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-10-28T19:20:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Health Department won&#8217;t turn away foreign nationals","datePublished":"2025-10-28T18:54:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-28T19:20:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals"},"wordCount":284,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","community"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals","name":"Health Department won't turn away foreign nationals - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg","datePublished":"2025-10-28T18:54:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-10-28T19:20:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Department of Health (DoH) has stated it will not turn anyone away from seeking treatment at State facilities, inclu ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/10\/sm_1761666468.780803.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Health Department won't turn away foreign nationals"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/health-department-wont-turn-away-foreign-nationals#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Health Department won&#8217;t turn away foreign nationals"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}