Alicestine October buried herself in mountains of budget documents and spoke to the experts to figure out what Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s new budget means for health. Here is what she found
A day after Finance Minister Tito Mboweni delivered his budget speech in Parliament, activists and residents from Khayelitsha and the rest of the Cape Flats, congregated at Community House in Salt River.
And by then, a day after Mboweni’s budget speech, it was clear to all at the meeting, change will not be coming soon.One participant who serves on a clinic committee in Gugulethu stood up and said that NHI is being politicised and “this thing is eating us”. In the coming financial year an amount of R25 million is allocated to the government’s national quality health improvement plan that will now be piloted.
Dr Lydia Cairncross, who is affiliated to the PHMSA and was one of the guest speakers, said the budget shows there is no real financial commitment to reform and improve the public health system in preparation for NHI.“Timelines for delivery keep shifting,” she said. Health economist Alex van den Heever said there is a dichotomy between the “political rhetoric that talks the NHI up, and the reality that the project is self-evidently not feasible”.
Almost R56 million is budgeted to establish the NHI fund, but there is still very little detail or substantial assurances on measures to safeguard the fund against possible looting. “Instead we are seeing continued shrinkage in health budgeting and are worried about what this means for access to quality health care services.” Stevenson said at present many forms of contraception have been out of stock across the country and health facilities, such as the new state of the art clinic in Lusikisiki, are understaffed.”
There are also concerns about the impact budget cuts may have on central and provincial hospital services, that will bear the brunt of the cuts, as well as emergency medical services. Section27 in a statement bemoaned the impact this will have in rural areas because “patients are already being denied health care due to a lack of reliable ambulance services”.
National Treasury agreed with this sentiment that grant restructuring should not harm but improve service delivery. She said there has been some “creative accounting where existing budgets are seemingly being repurposed to mask the lack of tangible commitment and funding towards NHI”. In the coming financial year an amount of R800 million, taken from the HIV component of the HIV and Aids conditional grant, is allocated to community outreach services.
“[Still,]The ringfencing of funding for community service and medical interns is good as well as the standardisation of community healthcare worker wages,” he said.We need to be able to hold people accountable and have them criminally charged for stealing public money which could go towards healthcare.
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