Gustav Thiel
THE government is discussing throwing a R200-million lifeline to safeguard specialist services provided by academic hospitals in the Western Cape.
The Western Cape Health and Social Services MEC, Ebrahim Rasool, said this week talks with the Finance and Health ministries were under way and an announcement about the cash, to be drawn from a newly created central fund, was imminent.
The Health Ministry declined to comment ahead of the talks being finalised. But Rasool said Finance Minister Trevor Manuel had given him permission to disclose the talks, which began two weeks ago, and their positive nature.
“It is my anticipation that the fund will indeed be established, and that we will receive the R200-million needed to save the hospitals,” he said.
The province’s academic hospitals -Groote Schuur, Tygerberg and Red Cross – provide specialist services such as heart and bone- marrow transplants. But their funding has been cut to R830-million for the current year, down R78-million on last year’s figure.
Such cuts could lead to Groote Schuur and Tygerberg alone losing 490 of their total 2 640 beds.Tygerberg’s chief medical superintendent, Abdul Rahman, warned the cuts “could have a tremendous effect on the survival of patients”.
The fund plans follow a report from the London-based consultant King’s Fund – employed by Rasool – which said funds were needed for the hospitals before “irreparable damage is done”.
Rasool said without the additional cash, the hospitals would be forced into the “indiscriminate sacking of very marketable people”.
The province’s overall health budget has fallen by 9% from last year – by R250- million, to R2,5-billion – in the central government’s drive to redress past imbalances in provincial health resources. The drive has also hit Gauteng.
Rasool, referring to his concern that the Western Cape government could divert the funds elsewhere, said he had Finance MEC Kobus Meiring’s “personal assurance that the money will indeed be used exclusively for health”.