Gauteng Health department allocated R1bn to retain Covid-19 staff

Staff members will be retained until the end of March 2023. 

On Wednesday, Finance MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko delivered the Gauteng budget speech in the provincial legislature. 

“In order to ensure that the Gauteng provincial government continues to have capacity to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, an once amount of R1.1 billion will enable the Gauteng Department of Health to maintain some of the existing human resources capacity for the duration of the 2022/2023.” 

As Covid-19 related infections in the province continue to decline, the department says it will not drop its guard in the fight against the pandemic. 

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“In light of the resources constraints facing the health sector, a total of R3.4 billion has been made available to the Gauteng Department of Health over the 2022/23 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, consisting of R1.6 billion in 2022/23, R738.2 million in 2023/24 and R1 billion in 2024/25.

“While we acknowledge that the pandemic is still in our midst, our response is driven by scientific evidence. Accordingly, in the 2022/23 financial year it is expected that the additional amount will largely go towards resourcing the Gauteng Covid-19 Response plan.” 

Health and Education have received the largest portion of the R153 billion budget for the 2022/2023 financial year. 

Health has been allocated R59.4 billion while Education has also received R59.7 billion of the total budget.  

Over the medium term, infrastructure has been allocated R36.8 billion with R12.2 billion allocated for the 2022/23 financial year.