Question NW2895 to the Minister of Health

Reply:

(1) The Department of Health has not conducted a review on the state of psychiatric care since the beginning of COVID-19. The last formal review of the state of psychiatric care in the Republic was conducted by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and a report was released in March 2019. The report is publicly available. The report remains instructive and the main source of information on the state of psychiatric care.

The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have derailed the implementation of the recommendations by the SAHRC, which we have committed to implement to ensure that the status core changes for the better.

The Department utilises information collected through the District Health Information System to track utilization of mental health services at primary health care, admissions to inpatient mental health units in general hospitals, and bed utilization rates in specialized psychiatric hospitals. The tables below provide information on these selected indicators showing the status in psychiatric care pre COVID-19 and during COVID-19:

Table 1: DHIS data on the number of clients of all ages seen at ambulatory (non-inpatient) services for mental health conditions

	EC	Free State	Gauteng	KZN	Limpopo	MPU	NC
	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020
March	29840	29855	14651	14259	41382	42768	39671	40389	33666	32210	11753	13463	5071	4645
April	31015	23721	14047	10312	44560	36605	41869	36894	32321	21158	12146	9022	5047	4168
May	31638	22990	15076	9055	45034	35622	44029	35475	34513	18936	14934	10726	4958	4385
June	28330	21425	13371	8135	40419	37720	41605	37824	32319	21165	12895	10548	4303	4347
July	31233	24569	15130	7775	50316	40393	45163	37608	33467	19947	6476	8175	5797	4638
Aug	30232	23244	15470	8354	45517	40886	42665	35994	34332	18466	16377	7766	5138	5118
Sept	29747	25839	14329	7927	42594	42635	40442	38246	35029	20838	17022	8453	4738	5021

	NW	WC
	2019	2020	2019	2020
March	9391	8682	18591	20750
April	9600	10038	20447	14434
May	9735	8805	20710	12763
June	8473	7118	18592	14465
July	10118	8408	22773	15374
Aug	9714	7331	21109	15094
Sept	9756	7540	20920	16734

Table 2: Number of clients of all ages admitted for mental health problems in mental health units attached to general hospitals

	EC	Free State	Gauteng	KZN	Limpopo	MPU	NC
	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020	2019	2020
March	963	787	2488	2340	680	818	1049	1492	626	685	290	298	59	45
April	883	733	2232	2028	800	548	1612	2160	716	498	264	210	107	67
May	1019	531	4993	3236	912	628	1426	1563	652	608	244	243	120	135
June	909	561	4407	4289	643	587	1510	1381	614	570	201	196	100	51
July	910	758	3350	3923	801	630	1751	1139	767	597	255	190	128	29
Aug	905	553	2538	4019	736	764	1618	1136	814	644	197	204	60	49
Sept	883	1400	2291	4494	688	905	1440	1361	712	858	230	204	66	47

	NW	WC
	2019	2020	2019	2020
March	194	205	1663	2057
April	205	164	1660	1307
May	182	175	1706	1221
June	306	188	1585	1406
July	360	226	1811	1501
Aug	364	194	1850	1468
Sept	235	218	1796	1772

Table 3: National average data for the Specialised Psychiatric Hospitals Bed utilization rate (beds occupied compared to the total number of beds) (%)

	2019	2020
March	75.5	147.3
April	147.4	64.7
May	154.4	70.2
June	149.1	68.1
July	152.8	70.3
Aug	153.8	67.7
Sept	81.1	69

Table 4: National average data for the Specialised Psychiatric Hospitals discharges (n)

 

	2019	2020
March	1131	1297
April	1218	1288
May	1223	751
June	1254	805
July	1255	824
Aug	1188	608
Sept	1076	800

(2) Through the equitable share, each of the nine provinces receives an allocation for the provision of health care services directly from National Treasury through the provincial treasuries. Provincial Departments of Health determine the allocation of resources to health programmes including psychiatric care. In this regard, information regarding reprioritisation of resources due to Covid-19 is currently being sourced from each of the nine Provincial Departments of Health to be able to respond to this question. The response to the Parliamentary Question will be provided in due course.

END.