​The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) continues to prioritise the filling of critical posts amidst budgetary constraints. 

Owing to the National Treasury’s guidelines on cost containment measures, departments are required to seek concurrence with the Gauteng Provincial Treasury (GPT) and Gauteng Office of the Premier (OoP) before the filing of any vacant post. 

It is important to note that the cost containment measures are not synonymous to the GDoH as they affect National and Provincial Departments across the country. All government Departments have expressed concern on the impact of the measures when it comes to key service delivery areas such as sustaining healthcare services. 

Furthermore, the GDoH incurred a shortfall of over R500 million on its cost of employee budget owing to the wage agreement from last year which was not fully funded by Treasury. This and other factors has placed a huge strain on the Department’s resources. 

The Department continues to engage with both the Provincial Treasury and the Office of the Premier to get approval to fill all critical positions that have already been advertised. 

Internally, there has been engagements with organised labour and CEOs of facilities to appraise them on the financial constraints and measures being taken to improve the situation. 

In the meantime, the GDoH wishes to state that it will continue to prioritise the filling of critical clinical vacant positions in various facilities including nursing, heads of departments and heads of units as and when it gets concurrreance that funding is available. The Department will also be approaching Premier’s Budget Committee scheduled for November to make a business case for additional resources. 

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Issued by the Gauteng Department of Health