Health funding took a back seat in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's Budget yesterday, with little mention of the National Health Insurance or any allocations to plug the gap created by the termination of United States funding for HIV/Aids and other health programmes, notes MedicalBrief.
Yesterday, Godongwana told journalists prior to presenting the Budget in Parliament that, out of 275 000 people working on HIV, TB and sexually transmitted infections programmes, only 15 000 were reliant on Pepfar, adding that the Department of Health would be asked to assist with funding the shortfall. The Treasury would only be able to provide more information at the end of the month.
In his Budget speech later, he said health spending would grow from R277bn in the 2024-25 financial year to R329bn in 2027-28 to support the equitable provision of public health services, including free primary healthcare.
He said R28.9bn had been added to the health budget, mainly to keep about 9 300 healthcare workers in hospitals and clinics, and would also be used to employ 800 post-community service doctors and to ensure pharmacies did not run out of medicines.
According to budget documents, the health function is allocated R941.5bn over the mid-term economic framework period to support the equitable provision of public health services, including free primary healthcare.
Of this, about 44.7% is directed to funding district health services, particularly primary healthcare facilities such as clinics and community health centres, which also provide outreach services.
“This level of care is recognised as the most efficient and effective due to its focus on disease prevention and proximity to communities. Almost 98% of the budget for this function is allocated to provinces, amounting to about R922.7bn,” the national Treasury said in the Budget review.
To strengthen the health system and prepare for the NHI policy it said the Department of Health would fund the development of a patient information system, a centralised chronic medicine dispensing and distribution system, and a facility medicine stock surveillance system.
Over the mid-term economic framework period, the indirect and direct conditional grants for NHI were allocated R8.5bn and R1.4bn respectively.
The Treasury said the total allocation for health infrastructure was R37.4bn over the mid-term economic framework period, consisting of provisional allocations from the Budget facility for infrastructure and new allocations for equipment for the Siloam District Hospital in Limpopo and Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town through a public-private partnership in 2027-28.
Mail & Guardian – No allocations for Pepfar in health budget