Department of Health 2021/22 Annual Performance Plan; with Deputy Minister

Video: Portfolio Committee on Health Annual Performance Plans The Committee convened virtually to receive a briefing from the Department of Health (DoH) on its Annual Performance Plan for the financial year 2021/22. The Deputy Minister was in attendance. Before the briefing, the Members agreed that a meeting should be set up between it, the Health Department and the Department of Finance to discuss the disturbing report that the Portfolio Committee received from the Auditor-General (AG) the day prior. The Department said that one of its main targets for the financial year is to get 500 Covid-19 vaccination sites registered to use the Electronic Vaccination Data System (EVDS); developing the Alpha version of the networked Tuberculosis /HIV Plus Information System. The Department said that the conditions under which it functions are difficult. There has now been a full-year cycle of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020/2021 financial year has mostly been consumed by trying to manage the pandemic. For the first time in a few days, the number of positive cases has exceeded 2 000, after a period of hovering at the 1 000 mark. This indicates that there may be some more difficulty again. Vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and COVAX have been secured and amount to 41 million vaccines, currently. The Department hopes to vaccinate about 67% of the population, but is actually planning to cover more than that, thus, a minimum of 40 million, but the plan is to vaccinate more than that. With the vaccination programme, the Department is hoping that the infection rate will reduce and that the symptoms for those who do get infected will be less severe. The Department is also hoping for fewer fatalities and fewer hospital admissions. That is what will be ramped up over the next few days and weeks. This will allow time for the country’s health services to restore. On the other hand, a lot of ground in terms of basic health services was lost – for example, sexual and reproductive healt