Disaster looms for Gauteng hospital patients as posts are frozen

14 October 2024

Patients in Gauteng public hospitals face a disaster as all posts have been frozen due to severe budget cuts.

Hospital CEOS were told last week that no new staff can be hired, and overtime has also been slashed.

The budget shortfall is partly caused by overspending on salaries following last year's civil service pay rise. The situation is so bad that some doctors and nurses have been warned they may not get paid in December.

With hospitals already under-staffed, patients will bear the brunt of the freeze. Waiting times for surgery will increase, and the risk of medical negligence will rise sharply.

This sudden recruitment freeze reflects chronic financial mismanagement and corruption in the Gauteng Health Department, which failed to spend R1.1 billion of last year's budget.

Furthermore, billions of rand are wasted, as we have seen at Tembisa Hospital where the SIU found that R3 billion was misspent on over-priced goods from dodgy companies.

The staffing crisis could have been averted with proper planning, but reckless spending and poor governance have left hospitals in a precarious state.

The DA will continue to press for an urgent overhaul of the department's top management. We demand the removal of Mr Lesiba Malotana, the newly appointed Head of Department, who the SIU is investigating for allegedly sharing a R8 million bribe with two other officials.

Issued by Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow Health MEC, 14 October 2024