Health Department to spend almost R1.2 billion on infrastructure this year

Dear Editor

In the 2022/23 financial year, the Department of Health will be spending R1 176 593 000 on infrastructure. This represents an increase of more than 8% in comparison to the previous year, which shows that the Western Cape is on track with its post-Covid recovery and is committed to providing quality healthcare to all residents.

For the past two years, the healthcare sector has had to completely reprioritise its programmes so that our efforts towards the pandemic were ably capacitated. As a result, certain items were delayed in order to facilitate this response, such as initiatives that involved infrastructure. However, the effects of these delays were worsened by the corruption in the national government and their inability to transfer much-needed sufficient resources, which meant the Western Cape had to support unfunded mandates during the pandemic.

With the province now in the endemic phase of Covid-19, it is therefore important that our assets continue to receive adequate investment moving forward.

This is why the Department is now focusing its attention on ensuring that our hospitals and facilities are further maintained and built upon. We see this in our allocations towards our existing infrastructure needs, whereby more than R631 million will be spent in this regard. Most notably, this year’s budget will see an increase of 99.28% in upgrades and addition as well as refurbishments and rehabilitations increasing by more than half. At the same time, in order to accommodate the Western Cape’s population growth, spending on new infrastructure assets will be 110% bigger than it was in 2021.

Across our central, provincial and district health services – and other health facilities – there are a multitude of capital infrastructure initiatives, with:

• 29 projects in the planning stages;
• 31 projects in the design and tender process; and
• 12 projects in the construction and handover phases.

MPP Wendy Kaizer-Philander says: “We are once again reminded that we are the only province to have a health department with a clean audit, with others experiencing countless cases of malfeasances and maladministration.

Infrastructure is one of the most essential components in service delivery, no matter the government portfolio, as it is the vehicle through which we provide residents with quality healthcare. When taking into account these immense projects and investments, there is no doubt that the Western Cape Government will continue to ensure that the wellness of our communities is safeguarded.”

Regards

Wendy Kaizer-Philander, MPP
DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Health

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