House Chair, through you to the Minister, all we have heard today is empty rhetoric and your own back slapping about the few things you have got right, a few more bells and whistles you can throw yourself a party, but over R200 billion has already been spent on NHI, but the state of health in South Africa is nothing to celebrate - nothing! No one who relies on the public health system is celebrating. You know this, and we know this.
This last week has highlighted just a few of the horrors patients in the public health services have had to endure. Elderly citizens tied to chairs, elderly citizens found with maggots in their mouths, and a pregnant woman in labour being turned away because "her womb was cleaning itself". None of them were in the Western Cape. KwaZulu- Natal has an ongoing oncology crisis - by the way, thank you chairperson of the portfolio committee for the oncology crisis. In Limpopo, the time between diagnosis of cancer and oncology treatment
is 12 months. This is yet another death sentence, like those in the Life Esidemi, but billions have been spent on NHI.
Provinces that are allocated the bulk of the health budget play a crucial role in the delivery of primary health care. But astonishingly, the primary health budget has the smallest budget. There is a chronic shortage of critical medicines, equipment, consumables and health professionals. Despite this, the provinces like Gauteng for example underspent their budgets for critical equipment by R504 million. This is mind-blowing.
The lawyers who represent the Gauteng Health department in medico claims, have all withdrawn their services due to nonpayment. Provinces and the national department now face R80 billion in medical malpractice claims - R80 billion! This is not budgeted for, but it is just recorded as a contingent liability. If just half of the claimants win their cases, provinces and the departments have to find R40 billion out of their budgets. There goes your NHI, your infrastructure and building budget, your Human Resources performance bonuses and critical equipment budgets. Already departmental and provincial accruals in 2016-17 financial year were R13,8 billion and the situation is not improving.
Minister, simply put, you are robbing Peter to pay Paul, and as always it will catch up with you. You start in the red before day one of the next financial year. We all know that the billions spent on NHI have done little or nothing to prepare for a Universal Health Care System. In fact, in most instances, monies have been diverted from doctors, infrastructure and equipment to pay accounts. The state of health has gone backwards, since we started.
Yesterday, Cabinet approved the disastrous NHI, and we are still waiting to see concrete plans and budgets. We are just talking and talking and talking. By the way, hon Shaik Emam, the MEC of the Western Cape is not here, but the person behind hundreds of cancer deaths in KwaZulu-Natal is here. Minister, we always talk about best practice, so go where there is best practice in South Africa and even you cannot deny it.
The DA-governed Western Cape is the leading province in terms of health service delivery. [Interjections.]. You cannot deny; it is clear. We are yet to be in a position where we understand how your plans and what you have yet to present to us and what the total budget of this plan is. Are we not going to begin where we should, at grassroots level and improve the basics in primary health care before we spend another R200 billion that has gone to waste and
nothing to show for it. The Western Cape has done it; we have done it right and we have done it without the NHI. Please sir ... [Time expired.] I thank you.