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This statement is a reply to the statement issued by the Democratic Alliance: Gauteng Health loses R670 million unspent budget

The Gauteng Department of Health has been commended by the Health and Wellness Portfolio Committee for improved performance when tabling its 2023/24 Quarter 4 (Q4) report on Wednesday, 14 August. Due to the election period, the report could not be tabled at the end of Q4 as per usual.

The report highlights overall performance improvements by 6 percentage points from 51% in 2022/23 to 57% in 2023/24. The Department was commended by the Portfolio Committee on the decreased rand value of medico-legal claims from R18 billion to R13.2 billion owing to various interventions such as mediation, public health care defence and other strategies instituted to reduce the contingent liability.

The Occupational Health and Safety compliance status of public hospitals in the province has improved with 25 out of 37 hospitals assessed (67.5%) achieving Ideal Hospital status and certified as compliant. This is a key milestone in ensuring the quality of healthcare infrastructure in preparation for the implementation of the National Health Insurance.

Elimination of Mother-to-Child HIV transmission has improved with an infant PCR test positive rate around 6 months at 0.35% which is well below the target of 0.75%. The HIV test positive rate at 18 months was 0.16%, which is below the target of 0.75%. In addition, 77.8% of children (<12 months) remained in treatment care. Maternal deaths have also decreased by 79% and case fatality rates for Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and diarrhoeal diseases fell below target levels. Furthermore, the proportion of HIV-positive clients aged between 15 to 24 years declined by 0.2 percentage points, from 1.3% in Q4 (2023) to 1.1% in Q4 (2024).

The enrolment of patients in the Central Chronic Medicines Dispensing and Distribution (CCMDD) programme known as dablapmeds saw a 15% increase in Q4. This intervention has proven to be convenient for patients on chronic medication and reduced the queues at primary healthcare facilities.

Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) continue to contribute to over 70% of global deaths according to the World Health Organisation. The GDoH has in response intensified efforts in reducing the morbidity and premature mortality from NCDs. As a result, diabetes screenings increased by 15%, from 7,2 million in Q4 (2023) to 8,3 million in Q4 (2024). Hypertension screenings also saw 11% increase from 7,6 million in Q4 (2023) to 8,4 million in Q4 (2024). The number of patients with controlled glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) levels over 8% increased by 7.8 percentage points, from 65.2% to 73%.

A total of 2,222 nursing students are enrolled exceeding a set target of 800. Additionally, 79 emergency medical care students were also enrolled surpassing the 60-set target.

The financial performance of the Department shows that 98.9% of budget allocated for 2023/24 has been spent with 1.1% (amounting to R1.1. billion) under expenditure of which R580 million has already been provisionally approved by Treasury to be carried over to the current fiscal year subject to audited financial statements. While the Department aims to spend every allocated cent, achieving this goal is not always feasible due to various factors impacting the operational environment. For instance, some of the money is committed to purchase orders or invoices that could not be processed within the previous financial year leading to a rollover of funds. The amount covers grants for human resource training, national tertiary services, district health programmes and the national health insurance.

Although the report shows positive performance in Q4, the GDoH acknowledges the areas of underperformance such as Emergency Medical Services, District Health Services and Health Care Support Services among others.

The Department is embarking on rigorous performance improvement initiatives working with various specialist teams at service platform levels to address areas of persistent challenges on both non-financial and financial commitments.

Issued by the Gauteng Department of Health