Stuart Hess
Patient care in Gauteng could be curtailed as state hospitals run out of funds because of overspending of this year’s budgets.
Government health officials said no additional financial assistance will be made available until the start of the next financial year in April 1999.
However, major institutions such as Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto and Ga-Rankuwa hospital near Pretoria will still be requesting supplemental funding from the Gauteng Department of Health .
Baragwanath hospital superintendent Claude Manzanga said the hospital urgently needs more money for pharmaceuticals, equipment and salaries. “We might request more money from the provincial department in November,” said Mazanga.
However, the budgetary difficulties would not lead to the closure of any departments for the foreseeable future, but if the hospital does not receive more money, medical services will be cut back, Mazanga said. The hospital was unable to provide specific figures indicating its spending this year.
The chief superintendent at Ga-Rankuwa hospital, Reg Broekmann, said his hospital would also be requesting further funding from the provincial administration after spending more than R107-million on medicines, blood, equipment and transport. This represents an over-expenditure of more than R24-million.
Salaries, which make up more than 65% of the hospital’s total budget, incurred a R3-million over- expenditure.
“The money is necessary for the work we do,” Broekmann said. “We are trying hard to work in a cost-effective manner. We will probably have to request extra funds from the provincial administration sometime in October.”
Broekmann said the hospital may need to terminate some services or decrease its size to stay within future financial boundaries.
This week the emergency helicopter service in Gauteng was shut down as the provincial department was no longer able to provide the R5-million annual fee needed to continue the operation.
Gauteng deputy director general for health administration, Kamy Chetty, said no further funds can be made available to the hospitals this financial year. “The department does not get any extra money, and it is up to the hospitals to maximise the use of the available resources,” she said.
The health, welfare and education departments take up more than 90% of the current Gauteng budget. More than 60% of the R5,2-billion budget for health in the province is spent on salaries for nurses, doctors and administrators.
Chris Hani Baragwanath receives the largest allocation among Gauteng hospitals. This year its budget is R565-million, an increase of R78- million from last year.
Chetty said hospital administrators and doctors need to show more discretion regarding the use of equipment, drugs and blood.
The department is currently looking into the redeployment of staff to correct the imbalances faced by previously disadvantaged institutions.
Provincial health representative Popo Maja said hospitals did not get the “ideal” budgets, but funding for hospitals is “sufficient to provide basic, efficient care for the people”.
He said the department was unable to provide further funding for hospitals: “[The hospitals] are asking for money that’s not there.”