With no money to pay new doctors or those working overtime, and state hospitals in chaos, KwaZulu-Natal Health is facing outside administration.
The Sunday Tribune reports that according to two health officials, they had been in a high-level meeting where this was discussed. The report says the department has projected R1.1bn in over-spending this year and now people are asking how a R350m injection in November (part of the 2016/17 adjustment budget) was spent.
There is also no sign of R600m promised by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi in November to train doctors in KZN, which he pledged. Motsoaledi promised the money in front of doctors, when he addressed the KZN Specialists Network's annual general meeting on 17 November, 2016.
National Health spokesperson Popo Maja is quoted in the report as saying that arrangements were still being made with the National Treasury to pay over the money. Meanwhile, the cash shortage has hit the public health service. Already 51 new doctors in KwaZulu-Natal have no posts and are sitting at home, while senior consultants have been told there is no money to pay for their overtime.
Maja said: “The position of the ministry is that all medical officer posts should be filled. "The ministry is working hard to ensure all interns and community service officers are placed,” Maja said.
Despite these assurances, doctors say they are desperate.
Dr Amil Bramdev, the secretary of the KZN Specialists Network, said it worried him that there were unemployed doctors in a province that had a shortage of doctors. “There is also shortage of specialists and we are not training enough.” He said specialists were now leaving the country because the local working conditions had become a joke.
The report says KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo, through his media department, did not grant an interview. Instead, spokesperson Sam Mkhwanazi responded: “Health is a priority for the government. As such, it has put in place measures and polices to improve the quality of health and outcomes. These include providing funding for qualifying and deserving students. The government is alive to the reality that it has to provide services with the limited resources available at its disposal to satisfy unlimited needs – a world phenomenon. Health professionals, including doctors and pharmacists, are urged to make sacrifices. They must be prepared to go and serve wherever they are needed, including rural areas, in keeping with the spirit of community service.”
Meanwhile, in an update to the story, Motsoaledi said the R600m budget he referred to when he addressed specialists at an event in November was a 2010 budget set aside to train 1,000 specialists nationally. It was not specifically meant for KZN.
He said unfortunately, the money arrived at the provinces as an equitable share. This means the provinces were not necessarily obliged to use it for the training of specialists but could use it for any area of need throughout the provincial government.
"I used this example to explain why in the white paper of the National Health Insurance, the government is proposing that all 10 central hospitals (hospitals attached to universities) must be funded, governed and managed nationally to avoid mishaps," said Motsoaledi.
He said he would call a press briefing later this week to address the issue of interns and medical officers who were unemployed.
It has been confirmed by Mkwanazi that three senior officials at the KwaZulu-Natal Health Department have resigned – the long serving acting chief financial officer Sihle Mkhize, Credo Mlaba – the department’s chief director for supply chain management and its acting general manager for legal services and Siphiwe Mndaweni – the deputy director general for the district health services, a post she had taken up only at the beginning of last year. The reasons for the resignations were not immediately known, but Mkhwanazi said they had resigned for personal reasons.
According to an IoL report, Mkhize has served as acting chief financial officer since Ndoda Biyela was given his marching orders in about April 2015 when it emerged that the former head of department Dr Sibongile Zungu had appointed him (Biyela) without anyone’s knowledge to replace the axed Mashaka Enos Ravhura.
No permanent appointment to the position has been made as Ravhura is contesting his dismissal in court. During Mkhize’s tenure, the department signed off on a controversial R2.5bn leasing deal with Resultant Finance that has stymied the purchase and maintenance of medical equipment in the province.
It was also during his tenure that the department agreed to a deal to repair and maintain two state of the art cancer machines at Durban’s Addington Hospital that broke literally every rule governing the way government departments are meant to procure services.
The report says late last year, KwaZulu-Natal Finance MEC Belinda Scott announced that one of her senior officials would be deployed to the department in a bid to rein in runaway spending, which was expected to be in excess of R1bn in the 2015/16 financial year. Mlaba could not be reached for comment on his resignation, while Mkhize said he was in a meeting and would return the call.
However, despite repeated efforts Mkhize could not again be reached for comment. Mndaweni refused to confirm or deny her resignation. “I don’t understand why you should ask me something which I consider it of a personal nature. I don’t understand why you are calling me,” she said, before referring all queries to the department and hanging up.
It was not known when the resignations would become effective, but it is understood all three tendered their resignations in the past week, the report says.
[link url="http://www.iol.co.za/news/lack-of-funds-public-health-at-risk-in-kzn-7410157"]Sunday Tribune report[/link]
[link url="http://www.iol.co.za/news/three-top-kzn-health-department-officials-quit-7410940"]IoL report[/link]