Gauteng health department gets R60bn budget, 2% lower than last year

The Gauteng department of health has had a 2% decrease in budget allocation for this year.

MEC of finance Jacob Mamabolo presented the 2023/24 provincial budget speech on Thursday in Johannesburg.

The budget decreased from R61bn in 2022 to R60bn. The other departments that saw a reduced budget are roads & transport and human settlements.

The overall budget for the province is R158.945bn, R5bn of which was allocated to the health department. From this, a special budget allocation of R784m was to deal with cancer surgery and treatment backlogs worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.  

“Prioritising the health and wellness of people also takes up a significant share of what is being allocated to the Gauteng department of health, additionally to the existing baselines, with an additional R5bn over the medium term, with focus on retaining part of the capacity taken on board to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, and which will go a long way in strengthening the health delivery platform.

“Additional resources also go towards augmenting the goods and services baseline, which has been under pressure from the fiscal consolidation measures undertaken in the 2021 MTEF, and which will be deepest in the 2023/24 financial year,” said Mamabolo.

He added the backlog in treating cancer patients could be blamed on both personnel and equipment, and the knock-on effect of Covid-19 which stretched the capacity of the Gauteng health system.

“In efforts to clear the backlog, the local government has worked with civil society organisations — Section27 and Cancer Alliance — in an approach, which involves the procurement of the necessary machinery and equipment needed for radiation therapy to assist the patients on the waiting list, particularly given that the nature of the disease requires urgency.”

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