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The Gauteng Health Department plans to review all contracts with service providers and re-negotiate prices as part of efforts to contain the expenditure of the department within the approved budget.

Outlining the department’s turnaround strategy today, the MEC for Health Miss Ntombi Mekgwe said the department had met its target to settle accruals and pay debts by the end June.

“A total of R4.4 billion was therefore paid from April to June this year and we can now say that the deadline of settling accrual by 30 June has been achieved,” she said.

She said a plan had been put in place to avoid a recurrence of t cash flow challenges that we the department had experienced. The plan included achieving cost savings by managing the compensation of employees, reducing costs associated with pharmaceutical, surgical items, medical equipment, security services and the use of government vehicles.

Outlining her plan to turnaround the department the MEC promised that decisively action will take to address fraud, corruption and maladministration within the department. She said a process of verification of employees; including payroll based post-to-person matching will be performed to confirm the numbers of employees in the department.

“We intend to establish an office for ethics and discipline in the Department and clinical heads of departments in hospitals will be held accountable for abuse of overtime and remunerated work outside of the public service (RWOPS) by their staff,” she said.

To address adverse events and instances of medical negligence, the MEC said the department will seek to reduce work related constraints such as breakdowns of equipment, shortage of commodities and human resources issues such as high patient / health professional ratios.

“Where medical negligence is confirmed we will endeavour to avoid protracted court battles by entering into appropriate settlement negotiations with affected parties. Disciplinary measures against professionals implicated in proven cases of medical negligence will be instituted immediately and they will be reported to the Health Professionals Council of South Africa, she promised.

The MEC expressed confidence that the turnaround strategy will lead to more effective utilisation of available resources by the department, improvement of health outcomes and enhanced internal discipline throughout the organisation.