KZN health dept overspends budget by R685m

The KwaZulu-Natal Health Department has overspent its 2007/08 budget by R685 million. This was revealed when Health MEC Peggy Nkonyeni appeared before the Finance Portfolio Committee in the provincial legislature.

Nkonyeni told the committee that the increase in the number of patients on ARV treatment and the outbreak of the MDR and XDR TB strains in the province were some of the contributing factors to the over expenditure.

She said at the time of the allocation of the budget there were 81 000 patients on ARV treatment but the number has since increased to 120 000. Nkonyeni added that they needed R5.1 billion to address its infrastructure backlog.