The beleaguered Eastern Cape health department, serving one of the poorest communities in the country, has reported massive underspending on services, amounting to a whopping R328,4-million - a large amount being funds earmarked for the primary school nutrition programme. Anso Thom reports on parliamentary health budget hearings.

Underspending of provincial budgets is one of the main problems in delivering health services to the country's most needy citizens. Judging from the budget presentations made to the Parliamentary health portfolio committee by the nine provinces, the provinces that need the most support are the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga.