Despite being allocated R26.4bn, the Eastern Cape health department will spend only R3.4bn delivering health-care services in the 2021/2022 financial year.
The lion’s share of the budget, a staggering R17.9bn, will go towards paying salaries while medico-legal claims, which threaten to bring the department to its knees, continue to drain the public purse.
The health department has forked out R3.4bn in medico-legal claims between the 2014/15 financial year and February 2021.
This means that because the medico-legal claims are not budgeted for, the health department has had to use money earmarked for service delivery at its clinics and hospitals to pay victims of negligence at its facilities.
And Bhisho continues racking up medico-legal claims, with 5,000 that have been submitted.
This is expected to take the number of claims payments to R4.4bn in 2021.
Delivering the budget and policy speech at the legislature on Thursday, health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth bemoaned how medico-legal claims were eating away at their budget.
“From the 2021/22 budget appropriated for health of R26.4bn, the R4.4bn accruals coming from this current financial year will take first charge on this budget before any plans and priorities for the 2021/22 year are implemented,” she said.
“If one considers the projected over-expenditure on compensation of employees for the current financial year of R689m and the estimated value of medico-legal claim settlements for 2021/22 based on the current year’s trends, the real budget for the department for the 2021/22 financial year becomes R21.3bn, of which R17.9bn, or 84%, is for compensation of employees.
“In reality, this will leave us with R3.4bn to render health-care services to the people of the province.
“Medico-legal claims continue to be the single biggest threat to the sustainability of the department.”
The provincial government is on record as accusing health-care workers of colluding with unscrupulous lawyers by stealing patients’ files for them, resulting in the health department being unable to defend itself in court.
To try to mitigate against the ballooning claims, Meth said, during the current financial year they would bin the manual filing system and start using an electronic system at the 28 highly litigated hospitals.
However, in some cases, there has been negligence, resulting in cerebral palsy or death.
“We shall continue to hold staff accountable and implement consequence management in instances of proven medico-negligence and where SIU investigations indicate collusion, fraud and corruption.”
The MEC said through the special investigating unit eight cases amounting to R96m had been opened with the Hawks, with the cases before courts.
One of the lawyers accused of multimillion-rand medico-legal claims fraud and theft is Zuko Nonxuba, who has been accused of pocketing millions meant for his clients.
However, Nonxuba, who has been in trouble with the law on several occasions because of the claims, has never been convicted.
He is expected back at the Mthatha Regional Court on April 26 in relation to allegedly making fraudulent medical negligence claims for two children totalling R30m.
He is also facing charges in the Zwelitsha Magistrate’s Court over claims totalling R45m.
The provincial government has also set up a specialised litigation unit, which it hopes will successfully defend the health department against bogus claims.
Turning her attention to the department not paying its suppliers within the stipulated 30-day period after submitting invoices, Meth said this was a concern that needed to be addressed.
“Our suppliers have had to carry us all this time because money meant to pay them for services delivered to the department is being siphoned by medico-legal claims,” she said.
The Herald reported on March 4 that the provincial government owed suppliers a whopping R2.6bn as of January 31, with health being the biggest culprit — accounting for R1.9bn of the total.
This was despite the provincial government having launched the Have-I-Been-Paid online payment tracking system meant to ensure departments paid suppliers on time.
At the time, finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko’s acting spokesperson, Pumelele Godongwana, said the health department had failed to pay suppliers because of budgetary constraints.
On Thursday, Meth said small, medium and micro enterprises would be prioritised with payments.
“The department will use its district and provincial cost-containment committee structures to monitor the payment of suppliers in a manner that ensures continuity of non-negotiable services,” she said.
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