National health minister Barbara Hogan has deployed a high level task team to the province and released R9,5-million after reports surfaced that the province had stopped putting new patients on its waiting list onto ARVs and was in danger of having to stop the treatment of those already receiving the drugs.

The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has said the problem allegedly stemmed from financial mismanagement while National Treasury denied that the province had overspent.

Professor Pax Ramela said in a statement released on Friday that treasury had given the Free State R63-million less than what was needed to cover activities such as ARV treatment, the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme, home-based care, voluntary counseling and testing, step down care and training. The Free State was given R189 630 000 as part of its conditional grant for HIV/AIDS.

He also revealed that by the end of September the province had exceeded its target of having 27 000 patients on ARV treatment by an additional 2 291 patients.

‘€œThis is an indication that the HIV and AIDS programme in the Free State is doing exceptionally well,’€ Ramela said.

He added that the Free State did not benefit from additional funding in the adjustment allocation in October, despite being underfunded with R63-million.

Ramela pointed out that the Free State was one of the few provinces supporting correctional services with comprehensive care and that they had started dual therapy for PMTCT at the beginning of the financial year without additional funding to the programme.

‘€œThe department was informed that R7-million would be made available for dual therapy and the department is yet to receive that funding,’€ he said.

Ramela said the province was negotiating with various bodies to supply drugs during this period of shortage, but he did not divulge further details. The national health department announced earlier the United State President’€™s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) would supply two non-governmental organisations with drugs.

Ramela was adamant that the province would not favour the ARV programme above ‘€œother intervention modalities’€.

He also said that to move all funds under the conditional grant to ARV treatment would mean they would not be able to pay salaries and would have to cease PMTCT, home-based care, step-down care and other prevention programmes.

‘€œWe have stated both provincially and nationally that we are underfunded and a point will be reached when no compensationary management will suffice to continue services against the current scale.

‘€œIt is irresponsible to suggest mismanagement as a cause of our problem. We challenge any person to substantiate those claims with facts and we are willing to be audited in this regard,’€ Ramela said. ‘€“ health-e news service