Vital statistics
Fast facts at your fingertips
You can consider yourself one of the lucky few if you have medical aid. According to the latest General Household Survey, only 17 in 100 South Africans have medical insurance, the essential key that opens the door to private healthcare.As many as 45 million, or 82 out of every 100 South Africans, fall outside the medical aid net, and as a result are largely dependent on public healthcare.
The lack of medical cover is expressed in the decisions that families make. When asked, seven in every 10 households choose to go to a public clinic or public hospital as their first point of access if a household member becomes ill. Only a quarter of households opted to go to a private institution.
It's no wonder then that healthcare is a high priority for public sector spending. For every rand that the South African government spent in 2014/15, 11 cents went to healthcare, totalling R157 billion. This makes healthcare the fourth largest item of government expenditure, superseded by education (19 cents), social protection (13 cents), and executive and legislative organs (13 cents).
Who spends this money? The bulk, 86 percent in fact, was spent by provincial government, which is tasked to manage the nation's public healthcare system, comprising 422 hospitals and 3 841 clinics and health centres.
Updated information in Stats SA's latest financial statistics of provincial government sets the healthcare bill for provincial government at R150 billion for 2015/16.This translates to R3 332 spent per person for the 45 million who do not have medical cover.
By province, the Northern Cape government comes out as the top healthcare spender, setting the bar at R4 082 per person in 2015/16. Western Cape takes second spot, followed by Free State and KwaZulu-Natal
These figures are averages. They don't take into account the finer details of healthcare spending within each province, those instances where a person with medical aid uses a public hospital, and the extent to which public healthcare facilities are used (e.g. the number of patients).
What is this money spent on? Using the functional classification outlined in the Government Finance Statistics Manual, the main expenditure items were hospital services (62 percent of the R150 billion), public health – which includes services such as family planning and disease detection (33 percent) – and ambulance services (four percent)
Another way to look at expenditure is to classify it economically. This shows that the public healthcare system spent two-thirds of the R150 billion on paying its employees, and almost a third on purchasing goods and services.
With slow economic growth, and recent news reports of possible budget cuts in public healthcare, it remains as important as ever to ensure the effective allocation of resources within the healthcare system to provide adequate services for those without medical insurance.
There were 3 075 ECD trained practitioners as at 31 March 2017, responsible for learning in all the ECD programmes. The National Curriculum Framework, approved by Cabinet in 2014, is being implemented in conjunction with the Department of Basic Education.
DROP-IN CENTRES (DICs)
DIC is a community-based facility providing basic services aimed at meeting the emotional, physical and social development needs of vulnerable children. DICs must be registered with the provincial DSD in accordance with the Children’s Act no. 38 of 2005.
SERVICE RENDERED BY DROP-IN CENTRES
Drop-in centres provide services that meet the basic needs of vulnerable children:
• Guidance, counselling and psychosocial support
• Social skills and life skills
• Educational programmes
• Recreation
• School holiday programme
• Primary healthcare in collaboration with the local health clinic
• Reporting and referral of children to social workers or social services professionals
• Promotion of family preservation and reunification
• Computer literacy
• Outreach services
NUMBER OF DICs
• There are 356 DICs in the department’s database
• 320 have been registered in terms of the Children’s Act
no. 38 of 2005
• 301 of the DICs are funded by the Department of Social
Development.
IMPACT OF DROP-IN CENTRES
DICs are providing care and support services to 47 189 orphans and vulnerable children in the five districts. All these children are receiving services listed above and this has brought developmental, educational, recreational, parental support and food security. DICs are providing parental guidance, support and love to the orphans and vulnerable children. As a result they have prevented abuse, neglect, school drop-out and have kept children away from streets.
CHILD AND YOUTH CARE CENTRES (CYCCs)
CYCCs offer residential care to children outside their family environment. The centres offer safety, security, protection and care to the children. Children are exposed to developmental, therapeutic and recreational programmes.
The province has 19 CYCCs which house a total of 1 068 children who were place in the centres due to:
• Abuse (sexually, physically, emotionally)
• Abandonment
• Orphaned
• Children living and working in the streets
• Children who have been exploited or lived in circumstances that exposed them to exploitation
• Unaccompanied and separated minors (from neighbouring countries)
• Children who committed crimes.
Success stories
Some children complete their tertiary studies and become professionals. There is a child from one of the centres who has qualified as a social worker. There is a marimba band in one of the facilities (Thabang) that recently competed in the Eisteddfod competitions.