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Cape Town - Health is high on the priority list of the government with the National Development Plan (NDP) envisioning a South Africa where life expectancy is at least 70 years, according to the Budget Review.
It says the NDP envisions a South Africa where life expectancy is at least 70 years, under-20s are largely HIV-free and the burden of disease is reduced.
The health budget will be R168.4bn in 2016/17, of which R31.9bn will be for primary healthcare services, R88.2 billion for hospitals, and R15.9bn for HIV/Aids treatment and prevention.
Several priority areas receive additional medium-term allocations:
- R984m to expand coverage of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention initiatives, including supply of antiretrovirals. The goal is to ensure that by 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV know their status, are receiving treatment and have undetectable viral loads.
- R740m for the treatment of tuberculosis, including enhanced screening and earlier detection and diagnosis.
- R300m to develop a national electronic medicine stock management system.
National health insurance, which is being implemented at 390 sites, is allocated R4.5bn over the medium term. The information system used at these sites to manage patient records will be improved, with an additional R276 million for this purpose allocated over the medium term to the information systems component of the national health insurance indirect grant.
The health facility revitalisation grant – which has been underspending in recent years – has been reduced by R365m over the medium term to support reprioritisation. The reduction, which represents 2.1% of the grant, is not expected to adversely affect service delivery.
* Visit our Budget Special for all the budget news and in-depth analysis.
