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A hospital ward.
The South African Medical Association (SAMA) has called on government to reconsider the proposed budget allocations for the healthcare sector. The association argues that the budget is inadequate and will not effectively address the ongoing crisis in the sector.
In his budget speech on Wednesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced an additional R28.9 billion to the health budget, which is intended to retain approximately 9 300 healthcare workers in the country’s hospitals and clinics.
Godongwana also mentioned that part of this funding would be used to hire 800 post-community service doctors.
“You’ll recall what the Minister was saying: as part of the public share, the funds would go to provinces, but provinces would not prioritise healthcare in their allocation at a provincial level. So we’re complaining; we’re saying that the province’s mass prioritises the hiring of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers. So that we avoid this problem that we’re talking about where you find that we have a poor quality of healthcare because of a dire shortage and also the burnout on those who are in the system already,” says SAMA Chairperson, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa.
Dr. Mzukwa has also called on government to ensure that it addresses the issue of corruption in the sector before allocating the budget.
“You can imagine how much money we’ve lost. From 2009 to 2013, we lost about R24 billion due to corruption. And we’re still investigating about R14 billion or so that was lost due to COVID-19 and the R3.4 billion that was lost to corruption at Thembisa hospital. So you cannot allocate these funds and do nothing about the eradication of corruption in the system.”
WATCH: Budget allocation for healthcare remains insufficient: Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa
