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The Gauteng health department has been accused of introducing a new system of overtime approvals, threatening to cut the overtime of doctors in Gauteng public hospitals by a quarter, with the overtime budget slashed from R3.45 billion to R2.65 billion.
This was revealed by Gauteng health and wellness MEC, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, in a written reply in the Gauteng Legislature on 8 April 2024.
According to the MEC, the overtime changes were made to address inequalities and irregularities in the approval and management of commuted overtime, which she said would lead to a reduction in paid overtime where there were disparities.
But the DA lamented that doctors were “up in arms” by what they saw as the centralisation of overtime approvals that would lead to delays and cuts in their overtime payments.
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The party’s member of the provincial legislature and spokesperson on health, Jack Bloom, said:
He said the department claimed the overtime budget cut in the new financial year starting from April was due to terminations, promotions and new appointees.
Bloom continued:
He called on the department to listen to the concerns of doctors and ensure there was an adequate budget for justified overtime.
However, Gauteng health department spokesperson, Motalatalane Modiba, said the notion of the crisis due to the overtime monitoring system was dispelled in February.
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He said Bloom was deliberately distorting facts.
Modiba explained that in February, the department communicated that it had taken a decision to withdraw the delegation to approve commuted overtime by CEOs of hospitals for the upcoming 2024/25 financial year.
He said this meant the heads of department would have to approve all applications for commuted overtime and that this decision was necessitated by challenges over the years related to the management and monitoring of the performance of overtime and consequence management, which resulted in an over expenditure in the commuted overtime budget.
Modiba said in February, the department explained that the changes were in the interest of improving efficiencies and maximising their limited resources to strengthen existing processes and put in place mechanisms that would enhance accountability and prevent the misuse of the system, leading to irregularities in the utilisation of commuted overtime.
