Millions spent to ease effect of third wave

THE provincial Health Department has so far spent more than R125 million to lessen the impact of the third wave of Covid-19 infections, says Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo.

In a written response to a question from ANC provincial Health spokesperson Rachel Windvogel, Mbombo said the most spent was R66m, on medical supplies, and the least spent was R838, on catering for departmental activities.

Windvogel had asked about the department’s budget to lessen the impact of the third wave of the pandemic and wanted a breakdown of the department’s expenditure to date.

Among the other big ticket items on the list Mbombo provided in response to the query were laboratory services, which were R39.2m, and travel and subsistence allowances, which were R5.8m. Transportation provided by the department had so far cost R968 137, while agency and support outsourced services had cost R3.7m.

Commenting on the response, Windvogel said the department appeared to be preoccupied with quick fixes. “As the ANC we are concerned that billions are being spent on quick fixes instead of addressing the persistent challenges and addressing the rampant inequalities in health.

“The reply by the MEC proves exactly that, with over R3 billion spent on agency personnel who are costly and not offering sustainable and longterm solutions. We know that the provincial government reserved billions of rand to respond to the Covid-19 third wave. As the numbers continue to rise we wait to see how much is spent to improve our bed capacity in provincial hospitals, as a number of hospitals are starting to get overwhelmed.”

Meanwhile, the department said its staffing capacity would ebb and flow with the wave progression but that continual recruitment is under way where possible, depending on the budget. The department’s people management section was monitoring the staff capacity impact weekly in line with the service platform’s demand.

At the same time, the provincial treasury’s latest procurement disclosure report for June puts the province’s Covid-19 procurement expenditure at R22 635 000, of which R22 614 000 was spent by provincial departments and R20 866 by public entities.

The report said: “The departments of Health, Transport and Public Works and Premier undertook the bulk of this expenditure for June 2021. The departments of Health and Transport and Public Works focused on nonPPE expenditure such as infrastructure, human resource services, accommodation and meals; and the department of the Premier on Covid-19 related communication and advertising in respect of prevention awareness and behaviour change.”

Meanwhile, the legislature’s health standing committee chairperson Wendy Philander (DA) said the committee would be putting questions to the Health MEC in its efforts to monitor ongoing Covid-19 care, especially in terms of bed capacity in the system.

This morning the committee will conduct oversight visits to a number of vaccination sites across the Metro.