Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla says his department has allocated R7.2 billion over three years for direct transfer – based on approved plans – to facilities in need of maintenance, refurbishment, upgrades, replacements or recent infrastructure.
The Minister delivered the department’s 2023/24 budget speech in Parliament on Tuesday, where he detailed challenges facing the sector and plans aimed at improving health services.
“Our budget vote takes spot at a time when our country’s economy is not doing well following the COVID-19 pandemic, and now load shedding. The financing of public health is seriously negatively affected by this situation,” Phaahla said.
The department’s budget allocation, the Minister said, shows a decline of R4.4 billion, from R64.5 billion in 2022/23 to R60.1 billion in 2023/24.
Phaahla said National Treasury has acknowledged that the health sector is underfunded by a minimum of R11 billion.
“Even though the R4.4 billion decline can be attributed to the discontinuation of conditional grants that were allocated for the fight against COVID-19, including vaccination, the fact of the matter is that there is not even inflation adjustment and there are also reductions in allocations to existing programmes.”
According to the Minister, 89.2% of the budget is transferred to provinces and in the current budget, the transfers and subsidies to provinces are at R56.2 billion (of the total R60.1 billion).
Meanwhile, the Minister said R10 million per year, over the next two years, will disappear to the no-fault scheme to cover adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.
Infrastructure
In the 2023/24 financial year, Phaahla said more than 200 primary health care (PHC) facilities are expected to attain “ideal status”, bringing the number to 2 400 facilities.
The tertiary services’ R14 billion grant, which is used as a subsidy for highly specialised medical services, will catch care of the 31 tertiary and central hospitals, mostly in urban areas.
“We currently maintain honest under 50 000 community health workers (CHW) in service and we are aware that ideally, we need more.
“Our HR team is working through the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council to find a lasting solution for long-term or permanent engagement of CHWs,” the Minister said.
Human resources
Over the last 10 years, Phaahla said the training of doctors by local medical schools and in Cuba has improved.
He said medical interns increased from 500 in 2015 to 2 625 in 2022, while medical community service practitioners increased from 1 322 to 2 369 over the same period.
“The problem is that provinces acquire sometimes not been able to absorb the medical officers due to budget constraints.
“We are working with South African Medical Association Trade Union (SAMATU) to design sure that doctors, who want to work in the public sector, are assisted to procure posts.”
Phaahla said the South African Nursing Council (SANC) and the Council on Higher Education (CHE) are finalising an agreement on the articulation of previous diplomas into higher education to qualify for postgraduate studies.
NHI
Under the National Health Insurance (NHI) grants, the department has set aside R1.4 billion, which will be implemented on agreed projects from PHC to tertiary services.
Phaahla told MPs that government is committed to the reform the current health scheme, which mirrors the inequality and inequity of economic and social systems.
“We are committed to the progressive realisation of Section 27 of our Constitution. We believe that the current two-tier scheme, one scheme for the rich and one for the poor, is unsustainable. We also believe that health should be a common qualified and not for profit, especially at the point of service.
“The NHI bill, which is currently in your hands, is simply an instrument for the realisation of the goal of equity.” – SAnews.gov.za
Opulent Gamer
Fun South African Fact: The world’s largest themed resort hotel in the world – The Palace of the Lost City – is found in South Africa. Surrounding the Palace is a 25 hectare manmade botanical jungle with almost 2 million plants, trees and shrubs.
Peanut Butter Woman
Diary of an Englishman after he moves to South Africa….
**August 1**: Just got transferred with work from London, UK to our new home in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Now this is a town that knows how to live! Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings. I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my new home. I love it here.
**September 1:** Really heating up now. It got to 31 today. No problem though. Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in London! Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. No more mowing lawns for me! Another scorcher today, but I love it here. It’s Paradise !
**October 1:** The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s windy though. Keeps the flies off a bit. Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected. Fell asleep by the pool yesterday. Got third degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed three days off work. What a dumb thing to do. Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!
**October 25:** This wind is a bastard. It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer. And it’s hot as hell! The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged R200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from @#$# Johannesburg. The wife & the kids are complaining.
**October 30:** The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner. House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bleeding R4 million house and we can’t even go inside. Why the hell did I ever come here?
**November 4:** Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost R1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 35 degrees. Stupid repairman. Fucking thief. If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to fucking throttle him. Fucking heat! By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat. Fucking place is the end of the Earth.
**November 9:** Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car. I thought my fucking backside was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking behind. Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried bum and baked cat. The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording – hot and sunny. Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 bleeding months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Fuck!!
**November 15:** Doesn’t it ever rain in this darn place? Water restrictions will be next, so my R5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool. The only things that thrive in this hell-hole are the fucking flies. You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little buzzards!
**November 20:** Welcome to HELL! It got to 45 degrees today. Now the air conditioner is gone in my car. The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I wanted to shove the car up his backside. Anyway, had to spend the R2,500 of the mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid fool. Fucking PHALABORWA! What kind of sick, demented idiot would want to live here!
**December 1:** WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
You are fucking kidding me, right?