Question NW2705 to the Minister of Health

Reply:

a) Impact of (i) health care (ii) health care services

• Impact on Infrastructure: Limited budget does not allow for extension and refurbishment of service areas according to the hospital needs and statutory requirements. This leads to recurrent breakages which leads to service interruptions e.g. boilers are old and difficult to repair; this impact negatively on theatre outputs, availability of linen for patients, steam availability for the kitchen operations etc.

• Impact on the service offerings package: Limited budget continues to impact negatively on immediate access to needed tertiary care e.g. Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital patients that require radiation therapy are referred to CMJAH and patients who require cardiac surgery are referred to Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital for treatment.

• Impact on Compensation of employees: due to limited funding for compensation of employees there are services that remain limited but are required for example, some of the beds in ICU cannot be used, this limits the availability of ICU beds for patients from the hospital and other facilities within the cluster.

• There are vacant posts that are not funded due to limited budget. This has resulted in the delay or no activation of services that are needed such as additional theatres that could be assisting in addressing some of the surgical backlogs

b) By what date will this be rectified?

• Annually the management has continued to present the budget requirements to the provincial budget bilateral committee. No additional funding was allocated

• Remedial intervention for staffing challenge: The Gauteng DOH Provincial Office is currently reviewing the hospital staff establishment.

• The date for rectification of underfunding for Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital cannot be determined at facility level

END.