R430 MILLION OWING TO GAUTENG HOSPITALS

An astonishing amount of R430 million is owed to Gauteng state hospitals because of non-payment of patient fees by the Road Accident Fund and by other provinces who refer their patients to Gauteng.

This was revealed in the adjusted budget appropriation tabled last Friday by Gauteng Finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe in the Gauteng Legislature.

The RAF owes Gauteng hospitals R230 million for the treatment of road accident victims. This is blamed on the RAF's "serious financial constraints", but another factor is that the Gauteng Health Department terminated its RAF debt collecting contract with Alexander Forbes in December 2009.

Fewer accounts were therefore submitted to the RAF and patient fee tariffs were not updated in time.

North West Province owes R173 million in patient fees, which is much higher than previously reported, and Mpumalanga and Limpopo owe about R27 million in total.

This skyrocketing patient debt is getting out of hand.

Gauteng's hospitals are severely stressed and desperately need this patient revenue. It would help in reducing the Gauteng Health Department's projected R1.7 billion  overspend this year.

Effective measures are urgently needed to collect this money.

Statement by Jack Bloom, MPL, DA Gauteng Health Spokesman, November 28 2010

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