The fact that the Department spent R61,313,517,000 (98.1%) of the R62,502,360,000 allocated budget tor the 2023/24 tinancial year, underspending R1,188,843,000 (1.9%) in a province besieged by numerous health constraints is deeply concerning.
ActionSA welcomes the unqualified audit opinion for the 2023/2024 financial year from the Auditor General, but is disappointed by the fact that again, the Department failed to comply with the supply chain management policy and PFMA, which are legislative requirements.
It is worth noting that the Auditor General could not verity several indicators related to district health services, provincial hospital services, and health facility management due to lack of accurate and comprehensive records. This is a recurring practice, indicating lack of will to create sufficient procurement and contract management processes including consequence management by the Department to deal decisively with those involved.
This resulted in reports of fraud & corruption where:
– Contracts were awarded to bidders who did not score the highest points in the evaluation processes.
– Goods and services valued at R1,000,000 were procured without proper due bidding
processes.
– Contracts were awarded to bidders who failed to submit declarations regarding connections to state employees.
– Contracts were awarded to suppliers with unresolved tax matters, contrary to Treasury regulations.
It is deeply disheartening that the total irregular expenditure increased from R2,279,551,000 in 2022/23 to R2,666,862,000 in 2023/24, while the provincial government has promised better fiscal accountability.
ActionSA welcomes the improvements at specialized hospitals — the enrolment of 2,222
Undergraduate Nursing students against the set target of 800, the 15% increase in the number of patients screened for diabetes, the 65% coverage (over 1.3 million) of children under 5 years who received Vitamin A, the decrease in Maternal death by 16% from 265 in 2022/23 to 223 in 2023/24, the elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission which was below 1% – but
ActionSA notes with concern that:
– Only 56 (46,7%) targets were achieved against 120 planned and 64 (53.3%) were not achieved.
– The dismal performance by the department not achieving its target for the budget allocation spent on township enterprises, only 8% achieved in 2023/24 compared to 33.8% in 2022/23. During the year under review 42% of service providers were not paid within 30 days as required
– The non-compliance with the OHS regulations by all 37 hospitals since 2022 is shocking.
– Exposing staff to work-related illnesses and injuries may lead to absenteeism and inefficient quality of care as well as high staff turnover. Exposing patients to hospital acquired infections may lead to financial losses due to medico-legal lawsuits and litigation cases.
– During the year under review, none of the Community Health Centres (CHCs) implemented the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).
– Only 82,5% was reported on the performance of CHCs with integrated health information systems against 100% target.
– The Emergency Medical Services no value for money spend practice is very alarming & dangerous, the programme did not achieve any of its set targets but utilized all the allocated budget for the 2023/24 financial year.
– Three of the tertiary hospitals did not achieve Ideal Hospital status during the year under review and the patient experience of care satisfaction rate was not achieved for all four central hospitals.
Liabilities range at R18 billion due to medico-legal claims mostly related to negligence
– The gross underspending of the budget on Health Science and Training by 35% has a long-term negative impact on the quality of services
– Lack of infrastructure maintenance continues.
30 years into democracy our people continue to suffer due to the unavailability of medicines, lack of cleanliness, long waiting times, lack of staff, lack of information and health education on prescribed treatment, radiology & oncology backlogs, limited access to care, staff attitude, and many more challenges in our public health facilities.
There is indeed a health crisis in Gauteng, our lived reality is that public health facilities remain death-traps for the poor and do not serve their purpose.
More needs to be done to overhaul the Gauteng health systems and ActionSA calls on the executive & department to focus on transforming our public health institutions by ensuring that Batho Pele Principle is adhered to at all times and that all managers are qualified professionals and there is proper monitoring and evaluation of healthcare services and infrastructure development.
As ActionSA, we will continue to actively play a constructive opposition and oversight role to hold the executive accountable to Fix Gauteng.
ActionSA Notes Improvements of Specialised Hospitals, Calls for Complete Overhaul of Public Health Facilities
The fact that the Department spent R61,313,517,000 (98.1%) of the R62,502,360,000 allocated budget tor the 2023/24 tinancial year, underspending R1,188,843,000 (1.9%) in a province besieged by numerous health constraints is deeply concerning.
ActionSA welcomes the unqualified audit opinion for the 2023/2024 financial year from the Auditor General, but is disappointed by the fact that again, the Department failed to comply with the supply chain management policy and PFMA, which are legislative requirements.
It is worth noting that the Auditor General could not verity several indicators related to district health services, provincial hospital services, and health facility management due to lack of accurate and comprehensive records. This is a recurring practice, indicating lack of will to create sufficient procurement and contract management processes including consequence management by the Department to deal decisively with those involved.
This resulted in reports of fraud & corruption where:
– Contracts were awarded to bidders who did not score the highest points in the evaluation processes.
– Goods and services valued at R1,000,000 were procured without proper due bidding
processes.
– Contracts were awarded to bidders who failed to submit declarations regarding connections to state employees.
– Contracts were awarded to suppliers with unresolved tax matters, contrary to Treasury regulations.
It is deeply disheartening that the total irregular expenditure increased from R2,279,551,000 in 2022/23 to R2,666,862,000 in 2023/24, while the provincial government has promised better fiscal accountability.
ActionSA welcomes the improvements at specialized hospitals — the enrolment of 2,222
Undergraduate Nursing students against the set target of 800, the 15% increase in the number of patients screened for diabetes, the 65% coverage (over 1.3 million) of children under 5 years who received Vitamin A, the decrease in Maternal death by 16% from 265 in 2022/23 to 223 in 2023/24, the elimination of mother-to-child HIV transmission which was below 1% – but
ActionSA notes with concern that:
– Only 56 (46,7%) targets were achieved against 120 planned and 64 (53.3%) were not achieved.
– The dismal performance by the department not achieving its target for the budget allocation spent on township enterprises, only 8% achieved in 2023/24 compared to 33.8% in 2022/23. During the year under review 42% of service providers were not paid within 30 days as required
– The non-compliance with the OHS regulations by all 37 hospitals since 2022 is shocking.
– Exposing staff to work-related illnesses and injuries may lead to absenteeism and inefficient quality of care as well as high staff turnover. Exposing patients to hospital acquired infections may lead to financial losses due to medico-legal lawsuits and litigation cases.
– During the year under review, none of the Community Health Centres (CHCs) implemented the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).
– Only 82,5% was reported on the performance of CHCs with integrated health information systems against 100% target.
– The Emergency Medical Services no value for money spend practice is very alarming & dangerous, the programme did not achieve any of its set targets but utilized all the allocated budget for the 2023/24 financial year.
– Three of the tertiary hospitals did not achieve Ideal Hospital status during the year under review and the patient experience of care satisfaction rate was not achieved for all four central hospitals.
Liabilities range at R18 billion due to medico-legal claims mostly related to negligence
– The gross underspending of the budget on Health Science and Training by 35% has a long-term negative impact on the quality of services
– Lack of infrastructure maintenance continues.
30 years into democracy our people continue to suffer due to the unavailability of medicines, lack of cleanliness, long waiting times, lack of staff, lack of information and health education on prescribed treatment, radiology & oncology backlogs, limited access to care, staff attitude, and many more challenges in our public health facilities.
There is indeed a health crisis in Gauteng, our lived reality is that public health facilities remain death-traps for the poor and do not serve their purpose.
More needs to be done to overhaul the Gauteng health systems and ActionSA calls on the executive & department to focus on transforming our public health institutions by ensuring that Batho Pele Principle is adhered to at all times and that all managers are qualified professionals and there is proper monitoring and evaluation of healthcare services and infrastructure development.
As ActionSA, we will continue to actively play a constructive opposition and oversight role to hold the executive accountable to Fix Gauteng.