Prof. Eric Buch, MBBCh, MSc (Med), FFCH(CM)(SA), DTM&H, DOH, is the Chairperson of the National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) Board. He is Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pretoria.
Prof Buch was formerly Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria, Health Advisor for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency; Deputy Director General for Health Care in Gauteng; Executive Director for Health Housing and Urbanisation of Johannesburg and a Director of the Centre for Health Policy at the University of the Witwatersrand. Also serve as the Director for Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.
He served as General Secretary of the National Progressive Primary Health Care Network and was an active member of the National Medical and Dental Association (NAMDA). He co-founded the Wits Rural Health Services Development Unit in Bushbuckridge.
Prof Buch was a member of the Board of the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Deputy Chair of the Board of the Health Systems Trust and a member of the Minister’s Advisory Committee for the Academy for Leadership and Management in Health. He is the University of Pretoria lead for the Albertina Sisulu Executive Leadership Programme in Health.
Prof Buch is a Fellow of the Faculty of Community Health of the College of Medicine of South Africa. In 2015 he was awarded the Public Health Association of South Africa’s Phila Lifetime Achievement Award.