THE Eastern Cape health department, its services threatened with collapse within five years by an overload of Aids patients and its budget facing over-expenditure of R200 million this year as it struggles with a near billion rand shortfall, has announced plans to rationalise state hospitals and seek private sector partnerships. Eastern Cape Health MEC Dr Bevan Goqwana said his department’s budget for this financial year is R2,8bn, but it needs R3,5bn to make ends meet. A committee is still investigating which hospitals will be rationalised. Goqwana’s plan is to cut the average patient stay in hospitals — costing R400 per patient daily – from 11 days to three days. Goqwana said rationalisation will not mean large scale staff retrenchments or closure of casualty and outpatient departments, but hospitals will be honed to specialise in certain areas and patients transferred to the appropriate facility best suited to them after initial treatment.