Western Cape Health receives first clean finance audit outcome in South Africa

Today, 20 October 2016, the Western Cape Minister of Health, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo tabled the Western Cape Department’s Annual report for the 2015/16 financial year.

The report is a reflection of how the Department used its R 18, 7 billion budget in 2015/16 to bring improved quality health services to the more than 6,2 million people of the province, 4, 6 million of which are uninsured.

During the 2015/16 financial year, the Department continued its unparalleled 12 year track record of unqualified audits.

This is a considerable feat of good governance considering that the Western Cape Health Department is among the largest purchasers of goods in the Province, purchasing almost R6 billion’s worth of goods and services in the last financial year. This constitutes about 60% of all goods and services purchased in the Province for that period.

The Department is now also a leader in good governance practices.  The Auditor General has also awarded the Western Cape Department of Health a clean audit outcome for financial management – a South African first for the public healthcare sector.

The Department has achieved this as a result of a consistent effort to apply good practice. Our financial system has become mature after many years of doing the basics right.

We have optimised our system to ensure that available funds within the public purse are efficiently, effectively and strategically used for delivering services to the citizens of this province. This is very hard to achieve due to the many complex processes and multiple points from which the department purchases goods. It is certainly worth celebrating.

The audit outcome is a reflection of our continued commitment to providing the people of the Western Cape with clean and transparent government that puts the needs of the people first. It is a practice we challenge others to follow. 

Of course, the performance of a health system is not only about good governance, leadership and management practices.

It is very much about the health system’s positive impact on the community, and the overall positive experience of both staff and patients alike.

Delivering quality patient-centred care is also a hard business in the face of growing services pressures driven by rising demand from a growing population, a burgeoning burden of disease propelled by poor lifestyle choices, poor socio-economic conditions and ever finite budgetary resources.

In the 2015/16 reporting period, the Department experienced 14 150 180 patient contacts within our 346 primary healthcare facilities alone. Our annual patient satisfaction survey indicates that 84.15% of clients who completed the survey said they were happy with the service they received.

Despite this, we continue to search for ways of improving and continue to use our well-established complaints management system to help us fine tune our service.

Health outcomes also remain positive within the province. Average life expectancy of 66 years remains above national figures. Life expectancy for women is set at 68 years, and 64 years for men.

The province’s infant mortality rate is 19.1 compared to 27 per 1000 live births nationally and the maternal mortality ratio is 78.64 as compared to 269 per 100 000 live births for South Africa.

As a Department we have also achieved the following –

• 203 565 patients on ART
• 82.3 per cent TB cure rate
• 91 153 babies delivered
• A low mother to child HIV transmission rate of 1.0 per cent
• 89 942 immunised children under 1 year of age
• 520 113 patients transported, of which 47 per cent were priority 1

The Western Cape Department of Health remains committed to continuing this great level of care and service. However we cannot do it alone. In our ever changing and challenging environment, the assistance of communities, civil society and the private sector will be crucial to achieving our vision of a quality, equitable, well-resourced and person centric health system.