1. Madam Chair, this Health budget debate is certainly not, “Much ado about nothing!”

2. Extensive deliberation at finance and in the portfolio committee revealed that:

a. Much effort has been put into strategic plans and top priorities, however, very little or nothing has been done to formulate Provincial health policies to set out or create the context within which healthcare in KZN should be practiced.

b. Policies give procedures, eg. SOP’s which accomplish goals and objectives; ensuring standardisation and equitable healthcare.

3. With this in mind, an area eg. That needs policy intervention, is conditional grants for effective utilisation and outcomes. A new grant, the Social Sector EPWP incentive Grant for Provinces, speaks to GAAP, or the Government’s Aid Action Plan and home based care was identified in the DOH Annual Report of 1999/2000. The grant of R 2,58 million will not be enough for the approximately 10000 home based caregivers, but a good policy will achieve optimum outcomes.

4. Medico-Legal costs of R 4 million, with R 48,196 million overspent, is pressurising the department and a constraint is lack of documentation on the departments side. The requirements for effective records, statistics and reports needs a professional, ethical and legal framework within which our healthcare workers function, because the legal status of records is the best tool during litigation for accountability and cost implications.

5. Reporting that clinical posts are not being taken up by younger people on the grounds of unavailability, must be checked against HPCSA Registration categories, and the bias of examinations written by SA students with foreign graduation. Hence policies need to be equitable and regulation disparities must be addressed to fill critical posts in the health sector for service delivery and attainment of MDG’s.

6. A further concern is the lack of plans for the uptake of EU donor funding.

7. The outbreak of infections in our institutions challenge current infection control policies. It must be the responsibility of a hospital board, in line with the National Health Act of 2013.

8 Other areas that require expediency are that telemedicine and financial disclosure forms of SMS members outstanding at 43%

9. Madam Chair, in view of the time constraints, I want to also commend the Hon MEC and the staff w.r.t KZN faring better, compared to most Provinces, for National Core Standards. We must remember that effective policies are inextricably linked to performance budgeting and a lot can be done with a little, in this way.

10. Thank you.

Shameen Thakur-Rajbansi

MPL KZN Legislature

Minority Front