Health
Whether, during the course of all the lockdown alert levels until the present, her Department was approached either by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) or by the national Department of Social Development for assistance in the provision of medical doctors and/or facilities for the assessment of disability grant applicants; if so, what are the relevant details, including the outcome of the request and factors considered?
In the Western Cape the Department of Health has had a SLA in place with SASSA Western Cape to provide the disability grant assessments over a number of years but the assessment service was downscaled during the epidemic surge. We were not approached by the National Department of Social Development but we are now currently in discussion with SASSA to re-introduce the service. The following factors are being reviewed:
- The safest way to return the services as part of the planning to phased reintroduction of services (areas, number of clients to be booked per session, availability of doctors)
- SASSA to coordinate patient bookings with and engaging communities about the appointment system.
- Planning is currently taking place and further details can be made available once these are finalised.
