Minister Nomafrench Mbombo celebrates fourth consecutive clean audit outcome | Western Cape Government

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Minister Nomafrench Mbombo celebrates fourth consecutive clean audit outcome

26 October 2022

The Western Cape Department of Health has once again received a clean audit for the fourth consecutive year. It is the only provincial health department in the country to do so. On 25 October 2022, Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness tabled its Annual Report for the 2021/22 financial year.

This financial year was not the easiest, as the country moved through the third and fourth COVID-19 waves and continued to prioritise the wellbeing of their patients. Despite the many challenges faced, the Department led by Provincial Minister Nomafrench Mbombo, the head of department and hard-working officials, demonstrated that corruption and financial mismanagement will never be tolerated.

The highlights during this difficult financial year, included the Department opening two of the biggest vaccination sites: The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) and the Athlone Stadium. The Athlone Stadium vaccination site opened during August 2021 and later, made vaccinations more easily accessible, through a drive through, a month later.

A total of 5.6 million vaccines were administered across the province since the start of the vaccination programme. As a consequence of the pandemic, backlogs on elective surgery have been building up and were severely impacted. There were also other contributing factors to these backlogs, namely the spike in trauma and emergency admissions, as well as loadshedding. An additional R20 million was allocated through the internal prioritisation of funds and R 80 million was allocated for the procurement of two surgical robots, allowing the department to greatly reduce these surgical backlogs.

The Department is also making good progress to improve infrastructure, embarking on 9 infrastructure projects which achieved Practical Completion during this financial year. One of the most important projects is the Wall of Remembrance, honouring those who lost their lives during the pandemic, both our healthcare workers and staff, across departments.

The Minister of Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, Dr Nomafrench Mbombo says: “Our staff and their wellbeing are of utmost importance. Without them the health system cannot stand. Acknowledging those who lost the fight against the pandemic, most of whom, died in the line of duty and they must be honoured for their selfless acts.”

Whilst people were required to stay at home during the pandemic, the Department through the services of telemedicine, provided appropriate clinical care to a selected group of the population. They also made use of the Chronic Dispensing Unit (CDU) to dispense medicine for the stable, public sector patients, by collecting prescriptions from health facilities and dispensing these medicines and returning them to the facilities which the patients attend. The Department also made use of E-Lockers, which have been initiated at some Community Health Centres, which allows patients to collect chronic medication, at any time, day or night.

Mbombo stated: “I am incredibly thankful to Department for their hard work and dedication in ensuring that the best possible service is rendered to our communities. I would also like to thank those in the communities serving on our statutory structures, for their willingness and role that they play in attributing to our successes. I am proud to say we are the only health department to receive clean audits for four consecutive years. This is the result of following a whole of society and a whole of government approach, as health is everybody’s business.”