Cape Town - Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has warned against the increase in medical claims against the Department of Health, saying it was blowing their budget.
Maluleke said the claims were increasing against the department every year.
She said the medical claims against the department had risen to R124 billion. Seven provincial departments of health were also facing medical claims that exceeded their operational budget for next year.
The National Treasury had cautioned against the increase in medical claims in the department, saying it was putting pressure on the funds of the national department of health and provincial departments.
This was a serious matter that required the attention of the department and provinces.
The Department of Health was not in a good financial health position because of the large claims.
Maluleke said she was also concerned about this increase in medical claims.
“The provincial health departments paid out R1.76 billion for medical negligence claims, while the estimated settlement value of unpaid claims at year-end was R124.15bn (75% of the total claims against the State). Seven provincial health departments had unpaid claims at year-end that exceeded their entire operational budget for the next year,” said Maluleke.
“The AG cautions that the growing trend of departments using the next year’s budget to pay the current year’s expenses and claims adversely affected their ability to pay creditors on time, and continues to have a negative impact on service delivery,” she said.
She said this was untenable and had an adverse effect on the finances of the Health Department.
Political Bureau