Gauteng Health continues to pay NHLS

The Gauteng Department of Health has paid the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) R398 million from 1 April 2017 to date. With effect from 1 April 2017 to 31 July 2017 the Department has been paying NHLS R106 million per month.

We acknowledge that we owe an amount of R1 billion and we continue to pay them on monthly basis. We are committed to making payments for the remainder of the financial year. There is a disputed historical amount to the value of R1,5 billion. There is a process underway to deal with these issues. It is disingenuous and in bad faith for NHLS to blame the Department for the impasse with employees. NHLS must resolve their issues with workers and not blame it on the Gauteng Department of Health.

We are having discussions with NHLS in areas where we believe there are discrepancies such as: facilities not for Gauteng billed to Gauteng, tests performed that were not ordered, tests ordered that were not performed, and duplicate billing.

The Department engages NHLS on a continuous basis on various matters such as process efficiencies, identifying wastage and appropriate use of laboratory services in the province.

Together with the NHLS, the Department has implemented an Electronic Gate Keeping system in all hospitals in Gauteng in an effort to eliminate unnecessary tests.