Premier Nomvula Mokonyane has vowed to turn things around in the Gauteng Department of Health by June this year. 

“The department has gone through a series of challenges in the past and we are committed to change this status quo.  We have set up a team that will go deeper and look at management systems there,” she told journalists at National Press Club in Pretoria on Tuesday.

The team comprises the Office of the Premier, the provincial Treasury, the National Department of Health and the National Treasury.  Mokonyane added they had also roped in KPMG to support the team. 

She said a number of initiatives had been put in place to deal with some of the challenges. 

“We have put measures in place to curb the misuse of overtime.  We have now introduced new systems on how people check-in for work. People would claim overtime and get paid for time they had not spent at work," she said.

In December alone the department saved a whopping R25 million on overtime claims when the authorities discovered how the system was being abused by hospital staff.

The premier said massive irregularities had also been unearthed in public health institutions like the Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, where doctors were bringing in their own patients from private medical institutions and treating them with state resources.

“We now know where the weaknesses are and we have put serious interventions in place.  It will take time but we will get things right in the department,” said Mokonyane. 

She said on Thursday she will be announcing changes in the Departments of Health, Social Development, Roads and Transport and Infrastructure Development.