Pretoria - The Gauteng provincial government is dealing with the challenges in the province's Health Department and expects to see the results of its interventions in the comings months, says Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.
Elaborating on her State of the Province Address, which she delivered yesterday, Mokonyane said on Tuesday that serious interventions were being made at various levels of the department.
She acknowledged that the department had been facing some serious challenges over the years. A team set up to deal with some of them was currently assessing the management capabilities of the department.
Mokonyane said poor systems were in place at the department; there did not appear to be much management capabilities, and resources were not distributed according to needs.
"We know where some of the weaknesses are. We are making serious interventions. It will take some time," she said.
Her government had given itself until June to turn around issues of management at the department.
Other problem areas had already been tackled, with measures put in place to save costs, such as money paid for overtime.
In some instances, it was found that staff had been paid three times their salary in overtime or paid overtime when were not even on duty, she noted.
Some doctors had already been suspended while other investigations were on-going.
At the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, R25 million had been saved in December and January in what would have been paid in overtime.
Mokonyane stressed that efficient management was needed, and that in some cases, there had been a mismatch in the deployment of people, citing the example of a medical doctor who would be expected to perform a human resources role.
Serious interventions were also going to be made in the medical supply depot to ensure that hospitals and clinics did not run out of supplies.
The issue of debt owed to the department and by the department would also be addressed.
Other provincial departments had contributed 3% of their budgets to the Health Department.
Almost R1.2 billion had been paid out since December to those the department owed money.
A number of irregular claims had also been picked up and processes were put in place to determine the validity of claims.
Mokonyane said investments would be made in the training of nurses so that the department could build its own capacity and eliminate the use of agencies.
She also announced that the Health Department would be separated from the Department of Social Development.
