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The IFP has welcomed the R626-million reduction in overexpenditure in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health since September last year. However, with R2.312-billion, the Health Department still accounts for the bulk of the province's overspending.

The credit for reducing the overexpenditure must go to KwaZulu-Natal Health MEC Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo and the joint task team comprising his department and the provincial Treasury. "The initial efforts aimed at cutting and consolidating the multi-billion rand health budget deficit, which ballooned under Dr Dhlomo's predecessor Peggy Nkonyeni, yielded no savings," said IFP's Roman Liptak who serves on finance and health portfolio committees in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature.

The IFP, however, does not accept the argument that public health care in KwaZulu-Natal is underfunded without qualification. "As long as hundreds of millions of rands in conditional grants go unspent and as long as internal inefficiencies in the Health Department's administration persist, we cannot blame overexpenditure squarely on underfunding," said Liptak.

The IFP continues to condemn the perennial underspending in conditional grants from the national Treasury due to administrative shortcomings in the provincial Department of Health. "The ongoing gross underspending in Hospital Revitalisation and HIV and Aids Grants in particular cannot be justified given the sorry state of public health care facilities and the scale of the HIV/Aids pandemic in KwaZulu-Natal," said Liptak

The IFP urges the joint task team to refocus its efforts on addressing the internal inefficiencies in the department's administration of public funds. "While the department has managed to step up its collection of patients fees, the internal inefficiencies involved in the procurement of goods and services, particularly of medical supplies and the inflated cost of laboratory services, persist. The multi-billion rand budget deficit cannot be consolidated without these measures," said Liptak.

The IFP has also welcomed the Health Department's firm stance in resisting calls from the trade unions to formalise non-permanent jobs filled though employment agencies despite the moratorium on the filling of non-critical posts imposed in August 2008.

On the whole, the IFP appreciates the ruling party's determination to tackle KwaZulu-Natal's current fiscal deficit, a strategy supported by the fact that the ANC's much publicised pre-election promise of a universal National Health Insurance scheme received no more than one sentence in President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address. "This is a tacit admission on the part of the ruling party that it was a mistake to embark on an expensive health care reform at a time of acute economic distress," said Liptak.