Gauteng Health owes R2.58bn for lab test and underpays R64m every month 

16 August 2017

The Gauteng Health Department owes R2.58 billion in total to the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS), and underpays about R64 million every month for medical tests.

This was disclosed yesterday by Gauteng Health MEC Gwen Ramokgopa in an oral reply to my questions at a sitting of the Gauteng Legislature.

Ramokgopa says that R2.58 billion is owing to the NHLS dating back more than three years, but R1.5 billion of this is disputed, based on a report by Gobodo that was commissioned by National Treasury. 

The Gobodo report found irregularities that include false and duplicate billing, destroyed requisition forms and interest charged on invoices.

The Gauteng Health Department has been billed R1 billion for tests from January to July this year, but has only paid R554 million of this.

This means that it is underpaying about R64 million to the NHLS every month, which is adding to its debt and financial woes - the NHLS says that it will run out of money by October this year because of outstanding money owed by provincial health departments.

The NHLS's lack of money was a contributing factor to the recent strike by its workers.

Ramokgopa says that there is a process to pay the debt to NHLS, but the continuing underpayment worsens the problem. 

The Gauteng Health Department is notorious for late payments.

It should tighten its financial management and pay all bills on time.

Issued by Jack Bloom, 16 August 2017