Gauteng's health crisis deepens with only 53% achieved targets
5 October 2023
Gauteng’s public health crisis deepens as the Gauteng Health Department achieved only 56 out of 106 targets (53%), as disclosed in the First Quarterly Report that covers the period April to June this year.
This report was recently tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature. It shows that four out of eight programmes achieved 0% of their targets - Administration, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Health Science and Training, and Health Facilities Management.
In the case of EMS, it was allocated R518 984 000 for the quarter under review and spent R628 565 000, but only 42% of Priority 1 calls in urban areas were attended to within 30 minutes instead of the 85% target. In rural areas, ambulances reached 83% of P1 calls within 60 minutes instead of the 100% target.
It is scandalous that so much money is spent but lives are lost due to poor ambulance response times.