R1.6bn overspend projected for Gauteng Health  

16 February 2017

The Gauteng Health Department is projected to overspend by R1.6 billion by the end of the 31 March financial year.

This was revealed in a presentation by the department at a meeting of the Gauteng Legislature's Health Committee earlier this week.

According to the presentation, the biggest overspend will be R1.162 billion by the four academic hospitals (Chris Hani Baragwanath, Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg, Steve Biko and George Mukhari).

Provincial hospitals will also overspend by R199 million and district health services by R50 million.

Court-ordered payments for medical negligence are a major reason for the overspend.

Other reasons include the improvement of conditions of service funding gap on the Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD), and the payment of accruals on medicine, medical supplies and agency and support services.

The Health Science and Training Programme is projected to overspend by R137 million mainly because of the cost of training students to become doctors in Cuba.

The department's funding crisis is leading to delayed payments of suppliers, pushing many small companies into financial ruin.

The funding deficit is also likely to rise because of the extra costs in relocating psychiatric patients from unsuitable NGOs where they were placed after the closure of Life Healthcare Esidimeni.

New Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa faces a daunting task in fully funding services for patients.

I suspect that the provincial government will have to bail out the health department, diverting money from other departments as has happened previously.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 16 February 2017