South Africa Health Care Receives a Huge Cash Injection

A mid-term budget statement shows Finance Minister Trevor Manuel has allocated extra funds for dealing with South Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic, in addition to focusing on long-term efforts to boost health infrastructure and retaining skilled staff in the public sector.

An additional 300 million rand (US $28.6 million) was allocated this year to offset the increased cost of switching from nevirapine-based mother-to-child HIV prevention to AZT-nevirapine regimens. Extra funds were also needed for the government's free antiretroviral treatment program to accommodate more patients than had been anticipated, said Mark Bletcher, the treasury's director for health policy. Since 2004 when the program began, more than 500,000 HIV patients have started ARVs, 200,000 of them in the last year, he said.

In 2008-09, provinces received an additional 1 billion rand (US $95.5 million) for occupation-specific wage dispensation for nurses, said Bletcher. This dispensation will be expanded to other categories of health care workers, such as doctors and pharmacists, over the next three years as a way to help retain staff in the public health sector, he said. While public health workers have increased by 30,000 over the past three years, many critical posts remain vacant, especially in rural areas, he said.

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