Mpumalanga health department broke, on verge of collapse
The Department of Health in
Mpumalanga is in financial turmoil, joining a growing list of provincial health
departments on the verge of collapse.
The department is more than R1 billion in debt and is struggling to pay for services and suppliers.
This had led to fears that the province could run out of medicine.
The department's spokesperson, Dumisani Malamule, says the massive debt is due unpaid invoices from previous financial years as well as under-funding.
Malamule says a task team has been put together to come up with ways to resolve the crisis.
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“However, we've already put systems in place like appointing finance committees in all the different places in provincial office to look at that.”
National Treasury has also been roped in to ensure that the department does not collapse.
"We hope, that with all the assistance that the department will be getting, that all the accruals are dealt with and the system out in place we are going to make sure that we try and avoid the same situation going forward,” Malamule says.