Health department says EFF proposal for 24/7 clinics is unaffordable

Providing round the clock services at all government clinics is desirable but completely unaffordable in the current economic climate, the health department told parliament on Wednesday.

EFF MP Suzan Thembekwayo has submitted a private member’s bill to parliament, seeking amendments to the National Health Act that would compel clinics and community health centres to remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Most public sector clinics offer services only on weekdays between 7am and 4pm, compelling patients to seek primary health care services at hospitals outside these hours.

“The bill in its current form will have massive financial implications,” the department’s chief director for district health services, Ramphelane Morewane, told parliament’s portfolio committee on health.

“The country is currently under financial stress and would struggle to adjust the current budget against the health requirements as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.

Thembekwayo previously told parliament that the EFF had not costed the bill’s proposals, nor determined how many additional personnel would need to be hired.

Morewane said the government was committed to the progressive realisation of the rights to health care set out in the constitution, and new clinics were designed to be able to operate around the clock should the resources be available. The EFF’s bill was therefore not an appropriate vehicle to make clinics increase their opening hours, he said.

He provided the committee with details of the total number of primary health-care facilities in each province, and the number that operate 24 hours a day. The data reveals only 15% of the 3,474 facilities are open around the clock, with wide provincial variation. In Free State, for example, only six out of 221 primary health-care facilities (2.7%) are open 24 hours a day, but a much higher proportion do so in North West, where 79 out of 210 primary health-care facilities (25%) provide round the clock access.

Some of the clinics operated by metropolitan municipalities also provide 24 hour services, he said. In the City of Johannesburg, 13 out of 116 clinics operate for 24 hours a day, as do 11 of the 45 clinics operated by the City of Cape Town.

The bill received a cool reception from ANC MPs Kenny Jacobs, Pumza Dyantyi and Tshilidzi Munyai, who said the bill was unfeasible from a cost and human resources perspective. “The bill at this current juncture is not desirable,” said Munyai.

kahnt@businesslive.co.za