The KZN Department of Health needs more money to see through some of the major infrastructure projects that have stalled.
|||Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health has approached the national government for more funding to see through some of the major infrastructure projects that have stalled, including two new hospitals for north of Durban.
The department - hit hard by infrastructure budget cuts - is projecting an overexpenditure of about R800 million if it does not get help from the national government.
The department’s infrastructure budget for this financial year was slashed by 36 percent, giving rise to fears that the two 300-bed district hospitals planned for Durban - the John Dube in Inanda and the Pixley ka Isaka Seme in KwaMashu - would not see the light of day.
But it emerged in the provincial legislature on Tuesday that the department was in talks with the national department and was optimistic that it would get an additional allocation of between R400m and R500m to see through some of the infrastructure projects.
Construction of the two hospitals is long overdue, with plans to build them having been announced as early as 2004.
Addressing members of the legislature’s portfolio committee on finance, chief financial officer Enos Ravhura said the department would be moving slowly on projects, such as construction of the two hospitals.
In his budget speech last month, Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo said construction of the Pixley ka Isaka Seme hospital was to begin in this financial year, but that of the John Dube hospital might have to be put on hold because of budget pressures.
He said the department was exploring a public-private partnership.
Ravhura said on Tuesday that plans for the two hospitals would not be stopped.
He said the costs associated with such a move would be substantial.
“We have decided we will move slowly on these hospitals until we get the money from national,” he told the committee.
Committee member Sipho “KK” Nkosi (ANC) commended the department for not abandoning the construction of the two hospitals, saying they would help ease the pressure on Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital.
“We as residents of those areas are encouraged that you are courageous and are carrying on with those plans,” Nkosi said.
“Mahatma Gandhi (hospital) is overwhelmed by the number of people it receives.
“The failure to build the two hospitals would create more problems for you as the Department of Health because doctors and specialists are leaving Gandhi because of overload.”
It is envisaged that some regional services would be moved from Mahatma Gandhi to Pixley ka Isaka Seme once the new hospital was completed.
Ravhura told the committee that the province expected to receive the additional allocation from the national government in the coming months.
He said the department was determined to show that it had the capacity to spend what was allocated to it.
bheki.mbanjwa@inl.co.za
Daily News
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