Chairperson, the DA has stated on previous occasions that we would give the Minister all our support in turning the Department of Health around. While the Minister has been making the right noises, it has failed to translate into any action.
As things are standing now, we fear they are getting worse. The nine provincial departments have overspent by an astonishing R12 billion this year, which is up from the past financial year. This is due to the chronic underfunding by the national government as well as a gross underestimation of actual health costs. Another direct consequence of failed ANC policy is that of human resources. In 1994 and 1995 the ANC closed down many nursing colleges and thus reduced the number of nurses we were producing. It also continued to refuse the private sector permission to train doctors. The consequence of that is that we currently have a shortfall of 40 000 nurses and 12 500 doctors in the public sector. The department still has no comprehensive human resources plan.
Coupled with the chronic lack of staff and the ever-increasing burden of disease, health standards are declining in our public hospitals and nothing brings this home more than the deaths of newborn babies that have shocked the country. How can 180 babies die in one hospital in five months without the alarm bells ringing?
The fact that it took 180 babies to die before an investigation was initiated shows how cheap life has become under the ANC government. We are only one of 12 countries in the world where the child mortality rate is actually increasing.
If we had had the Office of Standards Compliance fully operational as is stipulated in the National Health Act of 2003, which is seven years old now, many of those many deaths would have been averted. Under the current circumstances the DA cannot possible support the Health Budget Vote. I thank you. [Applause.]