Thembisa Shologu
Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) has committed R600 million of the COVID-19 Compensation of Employees budget for the 2023/24 financial year towards the retention of its critical contract staff who assisted in the fight against the pandemic.
"As a department, we requested the Provincial Budget Committee (PBC) to retain the current COVID-19 Compensation of Employees budget of R1.1billion. However, an amount of R600 million has since been allocated for the 2023/24 financial year," said MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko who was giving an oral response during the sitting of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on Tuesday, 7 March 2023.
MEC Nkomo-Ralehoko said the continued appointment of staff for the upcoming financial year was necessary to ensure improvement in clinical outcomes and patient experience of healthcare services. 
The appointments will be based on critical, prioritised, and urgent service needs at each facility based on the budget allocated. The reduction of the current budget and the competing priorities across service centres, has force the department to reprioritise capacity requirements to optimise the limited resources.
All hospitals have been requested to submit their needs according to their prioritisation. 
In addition, the filling of clinical posts across all hospitals and the process of advertising available posts in line with the allocated budget has been prioritised. The process will be fast-tracked so as not to negatively impact on the facilities.