The Gauteng department of health will set aside R784m to urgently address the backlog in surgical and radiation oncology services.

During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the national department of health placed a moratorium on elective surgeries, opting to only deal with emergency cases, creating a backlog of thousands of cases across the country.

These included hip replacements, knee surgeries and cataract surgeries.

This was revealed by finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo yesterday while delivering provincial budget speech.

The departments of health and education got the lion’s share of the R158bn budget.

The department of health was allocated R60.09bn, while the department of education was given R63.42bn for the 2023/2024 financial year.

Mamabolo said the backlog of elective surgeries was also because of shortages in both personnel and equipment and the knock-on effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, which stretched the capacity of the Gauteng health system.

“In effort to clear the backlog, Gauteng provincial treasury and Gauteng department of health have worked with civil society organisations – Section 27 and Cancer Alliance – in an approach that involves the procurement of the necessary machinery and equipment needed for radiation therapy to assist the patients on the waiting list, particularly given that the nature of the disease requires urgency,” he said.

Mamabolo said this collaborative approach with civil society in addressing the crisis was expected to address the waiting lists.

“I must point out that this is an example of the forging of collaborative public and private partnerships that will yield important lessons in confronting the many health challenges that Gauteng faces,” he said.

Also, the department has allocated R5bn over the medium term to retain some of the staff appointed during the height of the pandemic.

Mamabolo announced R2.1bn had been allocated to school infrastructure projects in public schools.

Of this amount, R29.2m was allocated for early childhood development – for the building and maintenance of Grade R classrooms in public schools.

“An additional R165m is allocated to implement school infrastructure programmes in public special schools. The education infrastructure grant, which forms part of the total budget of this programme, will assist the department to meet the minimum norms and standards for public school infrastructure, which aims to eradicate structures built of inappropriate materials,” Mamabolo said.

The department plans to refurbish 350 classrooms and convert them into smart classrooms during the 2023/2024 financial year.

Notably, R46bn of the R63bn education budget is going towards compensation of employees.