The KZN Department of Health is facing severe budget constraints which is impacting on staffing. File Picture: Independent Newspapers
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health Nomagugu Simelane has laid bare the crises faced by her department as a result of budget constraints.
She briefed the members of the Portfolio Committee on Health yesterday on the numerous challenges, which include the inability to hire more doctors, ambulance shortages, and the department’s challenges in meeting some of its key objectives.
She acknowledged that the department is facing financial constraints but insisted that this has not affected the supply of medication to patients.
Simelane also spoke about the decision of the US government to cut funding to some health programmes, saying the move primarily affects NGOs that were receiving the funding. She said 4 000 workers in the province have been impacted, with some being told not to come to work. She assured the public that the funding cuts would have no impact on the supply of ARVs.
Addressing the allegations that the department was running out of medication, she said medication shortages could be caused by suppliers not delivering or under-supplying, or if a manager in the hospital or health institution failed to order the medication on time, causing stock levels to run low.
However, she emphasised that the department would not allow a patient to go without medication.
Simelane also touched on the issue of unemployed doctors and pharmacists, saying the department does not have the funds to hire more staff.
She added that she has raised this issue as high as the president, indicating that the department cannot continue operating under these constraints.
It was revealed that the projected expenditure exceeds R4 billion, with R3 bn allocated to the compensation of employees.
“We cannot spend money we do not have. We met with an organisation that claimed to represent unemployed doctors, stating it had 345 doctors. However, when we looked at the names, we found that some doctors are already employed in other provinces and want to return to KwaZulu-Natal, while others are running private surgeries or working in the private sector and wish to work for the government.
“We cannot employ only doctors; we need to appoint nurses and allied workers. Last year, we employed more than 100 doctors, but we were unable to appoint other staff,” she added.
“There is no way that we can hire all the doctors, even if we had the vacancies. We reached out to the treasury after the protest by these doctors, and the treasury confirmed what we already knew: there is no money.”
The department also addressed the issue of ambulances, revealing that of its fleet of over 200, less than 100 had a mileage of less than 150 000. This has resulted in numerous breakdowns and high costs of repair work.
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