Gauteng Health needs to be rescued from mismanagement and failure
11 March 2024
The Gauteng Health Department is projected to overspend its budget by R2.275 billion even though it is failing key health targets, including poor emergency response times and low child immunisation.
According to reports tabled recently at the Gauteng Legislature’s Health Committee, the budget was adjusted upward by R2.4 billion, from R60.1 billion to R63.5 billion, but this is not enough to offset extra expenses.
The 20% overspend in Administration is due to legal fees and the centralised payment of medico-legal claims - R623 million was paid out to claimants and an astounding R597 million was paid to private attorneys and the State legal services.
Emergency Management Services (EMS) received a R721 million increase to pay for ambulances, but overspent its budget to pay for machinery and equipment of the accruals on EMS vehicles from the previous year’s budget.