Gauteng Health Budget Crisis – another Esidimeni?

26 September 2017

I wish to express concern about the financial mismanagement and budget crisis in the Gauteng Department of Health.

Alarm bells should be ringing when the Sheriff of the Court has to remove furniture from the Gauteng Health Head Office to force payment for medical negligence, but the Department still does not pay.

The telephone lines are cut at head office and at the Bheki Mlangeni Hospital, but the Department still does not pay.

Vital equipment at hospitals is not repaired because suppliers are not paid.

Increasingly, companies do not want to do business with the Department because they are not paid in reasonable time, which is supposed to be 30 days.

And now the Rahima Moosa Mother and Child Hospital is struggling because agency nurses have been withdrawn because of non-payment.

I shudder to think what is next.

Urgent intervention is needed to fix the finances of this Department, otherwise we will face another Esidimeni, with increasing avoidable deaths because of deteriorating health services.

You have been warned. Please do something about it.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 26 September 2017