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HomeSA Provincial HealthGauteng Health gets lion's share of provincial budget

Gauteng Health gets lion's share of provincial budget

In the Gauteng provincial budget of R132.4bn, R50.7bn will go to Health. Of this, R346m will be used to employ interns, R310m will be set aside for the absorption of community health workers and R17bn will be used to fund goods and services.

Business Day reports that according to Gauteng Finance MEC Barbara Creecy, the total budget for health is R50.8bn, while education received R49.4bn, with R5.5bn allocated to social development.

The report says the Health Department budget includes R30bn for the wage bill. R17bn has been allocated for the procurement of goods and services, which includes carry-through costs of an R1.8bn per annum commitment made by the department to pay off its accruals.

About R150m has been allocated to obtain suitable office accommodation for the department following the Bank of Lisbon building fire in the Johannesburg CBD in 2018, which led to the deaths of three firefighters.

The report says the Health Department has come under fire in recent years, especially after the Life Esidimeni tragedy in which more than 140 psychiatric patients died after being removed from Life Esidimeni’s care. In March last year last year, retired deputy chief justice Dikgang Moseneke ordered the provincial government to compensate the families of the 144 patients who died after being placed in the care of unregistered and/or incompetent NGOs.

[link url="https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/2019-03-05-health-education-and-social-welfare-gobble-up-most-of-gautengs-budget/"]Business Day report[/link]

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