By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI
The accruals at the North West Department of Health hamper the provision of effective services, says the provincial treasury. North West MEC for Finance, Motlalepula Rosho, who tabled the provincial budget for 2022/2023 financial year in Mahikeng said the department is projecting accruals of R1.1 billion by the end of the current financial year.
“An amount of R350 million is set aside for health accruals in the 2022/23 financial year. In addition, the department reprioritised R150 million from the baseline towards accruals. We want to ensure that the creditors receive their payments within the prescribed 30 day period.
“So, to address this, the department will be implementing a three-year funding strategy that will also facilitate the provision of medicine and medical consumables, while mitigating against cash flow challenges within the department,” Rosho said.
The department has received a whopping R15.186 billion budget allocation for 2022/23 financial year, which is the second largest Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget allocation in the province.
“This budget accumulated to R28.973 billion in the last two years of the MTEF. Inclusive in this allocation is an amount of R652 million for health facility revitalization, R811 million for both medical supplies and medicine, and R1.525 billion for the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“In recent years, the department faced pressure in covering the costs associated with the placement of the growing number of medical graduates. So to support the department in responding to the placement of medical graduates, an additional R79 million is allocated to the Statutory Human Resource Grant in the 2022/23 financial year accumulating to R152 million in the two outer years of the MTEF,” she said.
Rosho further said to this end, an amount of R200 million is added to the departmental budget. She added that other programmes funded within this budget are for community health workers, emergency transport and planned patient transport.
“Included in the budget for the department, is an amount of R522.847 million for the COVID-19 pandemic and essential medical supplies. We need to be mindful that our economy has been reeling from the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed over the past two years,” said Rosho.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) MPL in the North West Provincial Legislature (NWPL), Freedy Sonakile said: “The budget allocated to the Department of Health exposes many gaps. There is no mention of any additions to the ambulance fleet, no new hospitals, and no new clinics.
“Instead, it only speaks to maintenance in a province with failing infrastructure and degraded buildings. The budget also fails to address the current out-dated medical record-keeping system, which fails to serve its purpose.”
However, Sonakile said they welcome the additional allocation to deal with the accruals, although it does not fix the problem. He said they expected Rosho to provide a strengthened monitoring and evaluation system under the Provincial Treasury and the Office of the Premier towards monitoring the utilisation of the allocated funds.
The Guardian 