The ANC has no cure for poor health care in the Free State

6 November 2018

The ANC has no cure for the sickly state of health care in the Free State. Year after year the Auditor-General (AG) diagnoses the Free State Department of Health with a serious case of poor leadership, mismanagement and maladministration. Year after year, the people of the Free State see no improvement in health care.

The AG's audit outcome for the Department for the period of 2017 to 2018 indicates:

- Irregular expenditure of R820 million (R596 million in 2016-2017).

- Fruitless expenditure of R3,1 million (R900 000 in 2016-2017).

- Unauthorised expenditure of R141 million (R68 million in 2016-2017).

An example of the poor management is the Department's appointment of a local service provider that was outsourced to address health care challenges. The service provider was supposed to use the Department's mobile clinics to focus on efficiency, coverage, specialisation and value for money.

The service provider was paid R24 million (R945 per patient) to do this.

The project was an utter failure. A standard fee was paid for patients, regardless of whether the services were indeed rendered. In some cases, payments were made twice, and the services were never effectively monitored.  And in the meantime, the service provider has stopped rendering the services even before the term of the service contract came to an end.

And yet the ANC is proceeding with its preparations to implement National Health Insurance -  the party must rather come and see how it has already failed in the Free State.

This project is one of many failures in the Free State Department of Health and according to the AG, the Department did not progress in any of its key focus areas, instead, it stagnated drastically.

The FF Plus shares the AG's sentiments that the lack of leadership, poor financial management and maladministration are all cause for concern for health care in the province.

The AG's findings include, among other things:

- An utter lack of leadership in the Department.

- Intervention is urgently needed in the management of finances and performance.

- Poor administration which means that officials are not held accountable.

The FF Plus will continue to fight back in the Public Accounts Committee against poor management and the lack of accountability for officials who neglect to perform their duties for the sake of the people of the Free State.

Issued by Tammy Wessels, FF Plus MPL: Free State Legislature, 7 November 2018