Durban — KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Nomagugu Simelane highlighted the crippling effects of underfunding in her budget vote speech in the KZN provincial legislature on Wednesday.
Simelane said the financial constraints the department faced were becoming increasingly severe, with constant budget cuts threatening the ability to fulfil the department’s core mandate.
She said that since 2019, the department had lost close to R17 billion, which had been taken away from its baseline. She added that this situation was severely crippling, and affected the long-term sustainability of the department and its work.
“This chronic underfunding of our health care system, which I have just alluded to, affects many areas of our operations; including our ability to fill many critical posts. It also contributes directly to overcrowded facilities and slow-moving queues. Our dedicated health care workers, despite their commitment, end up being stretched very thin,” she said.
Simelane said this led to burnout and diminished capacity to serve communities effectively, which was a major concern, given the sensitive and critical nature of work the health care professionals did.
“If we are to meet the health care needs of our people, we must urgently address these funding challenges.
“We have been having continuous engagements with the National Treasury, as well as the National Department of Health, with a view to ensure that we do not reach a crisis point. The health of our province must remain a priority, and I will not rest until we secure the resources that are necessary to keep our facilities open and functioning effectively,” said Simelane.
However, at the top of her list in her speech was the item of her concern over health care workers “absconding” from work.
“Our focus must be on serving the public, not on socialising; or failing to fulfil the terms and conditions of our employment by arriving at work late, or leaving too early,” she said.
The MEC said that the development of infrastructure – particularly the built environment – was essential for improving health care service delivery.
“A few weeks ago, we embarked on the very significant process of sod-turning and the hand-over of contractors to indicate the imminent construction of nine clinics and two community health centres,” said Simelane.
She said that in this new financial year, “we will continue to steam ahead with the process of upgrading four hospitals – which are Vryheid, Dundee, Bethesda, and Christ the King – from district to regional status”.
KwaZulu-Natal continued to find itself as the unnecessary epicentre of TB, HIV, and Aids.
“These are diseases that should no longer be killing our people because both TB and HIV are preventable. In cases where they cannot be prevented, treatment is available, including a cure for TB, yet we continue to see new infections and, tragically, unnecessary deaths,” Simelane said.
Reflecting on the progress since the 2019/20 financial year, she said that KwaZulu-Natal had made significant strides in the TB control programme between the 2019/20 and 2023/24 financial years.
The number of TB tests conducted increased from about 662 000 to more than 1 million over this 5-year period.
She said the allocations were:
- Administration: R1.37 billion.
- District health services: R27.5bn.
- Emergency medical services: R1.79bn.
- Provincial hospital services: R13.2bn.
- Central hospital services: R6bn.
- Health sciences and training: R1.5 million.
- Health care support services: R37m.
- Health facilities management: R1.97bn.
- The total was R53.8bn.
She did not mention the plight of unemployed medical doctors, nurses and social workers in her speech.
National Independent Congress of SA leader Narendh Ganesh said that South African medical graduates who had trained overseas at enormous cost to their parents and families – not the government – were sitting idle while the dire need for such personnel was rising exponentially.
He said recent reports of South African foreign-trained medical graduates who remained idle while the Department of Health and health system floundered had to be addressed post haste.
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