DELIVERY
Debt cripples health services, warns Gauteng MEC
The budget of the province’s health department grew from R37.6bn in 2016 to R40.2bn in 2017
Gauteng ’s R40bn health budget is insufficient and the department cannot carry out the tasks it is required to do because of its sizeable debt, says health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa. The budget of the province’s health department grew from R37.6bn in 2016 to R40.2bn in 2017. It is the department with the second-largest allocation in the province’s total budget. At the province’s Health Consultative Forum on Thursday, Ramokgopa said the challenges that plagued the public health system included high equipment prices, poor-quality services and inadequate human resources. Of the total budget, R23.8bn was earmarked for compensation of employees and R16.3bn for goods and services, while an estimated R6bn was allocated to accruals, she said. Service Providers "This budget is effectively not available," she said, "which means we have not been able to afford services in the past years and the service providers carried the public health system at a huge cost." Small businesses were badly affected a...
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