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The Western Cape health department will be entering the new financial year on the backfoot - more than R800 million short of the costs needed to do exactly what it did in 2023/24.
But the provincial head of health, Dr Keith Cloete, said planning ahead meant the shortfall should not have the same effect as last year's budget crisis, when the department was forced to readjust its expenditure towards the end of 2024 because it was "spending more money than we had".
This resulted in health services being driven into "crippling austerity", according to more than 1 000 health workers who signed an open letter regarding the practical implications of the R1.5 billion mid-year budget cut.
