The government will "urgently" start rehabilitating State hospitals in order to implement its new National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, Deputy Health Minister Molefi Sefularo said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Annual Development Partners Consultation Forum in Pretoria, Sefularo said this was part of the government's goal to reduce inequalities in health care provision.

"Goals have been set for further reducing inequalities in healthcare provision, to boost human resource capacity, revitalize hospitals and clinics and step up the fight against the scourge of HIV and Aids, tuberculosis (TB) and other diseases," he said.

His department was paying serious attention to the remuneration of health professionals, removing uncertainty in the country's health services, and doing more to promote quality health care.

To do this, it had identified ten key priorities to focus on until 2014.

These included providing strategic leadership, implementing of the NHI, improving the quality of services, and overhauling the health care system and infrastructure.

Sefularo said the government also wanted to reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50% and to reach 80%of people who needed antiretroviral drugs by 2011.

He said his department had identified 18 districts which would be handled as priority areas.

"These districts were chosen because they have poor health status, health service delivery and poor access to health services," he said.

The 14 worst performing districts are located within the Eastern Cape, Kwazulu-Natal, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.