Hospital Catering, Laundry and Security Services – Costing – Security Services

Laundry services: It is estimated that R1.8 billion was spent on laundry services in public hospitals in 2016/17, a figure that increased by 4.6% a year since 2014/15, but by 8.2% since 2012/13. The average cost per item was R17.39 in 2016/17, but it ranged between nearly R26 in the Free State and R12.15 in North West. It is estimated that in 2018/19, the cost of using departmentally owned laundries off-site will be over R30 per item compared to R10 per item of using contractors on-site. Security services: In total, these services cost R1.2 billion in 2016/17, a figure that had risen by an annual average of 9% a year since 2012/13. Security services can b provided by security officers employed by departments of health or contracted out to private security companies. The national average cost of security service is about R13 500 per bed in 2016/17, and six provinces spent between R10 000 and R16 000. On average, security provided by external providers is more expensive than security provided internally, but much depends on the nature of the hospital being serviced, with insourced costs for large hospitals – urban and rural – being lower than the costs of outsourcing. Catering services: These services are estimated to have cost provincial departments of health R2.1 billion in 2016/17, a figure that has risen by an annual average of 5.8% a year since 2012/13. The average catering costs per PDE in 2016/17 was about R67, but the range reasonably wide across provinces – from R59 in Limpopo to R79 in Mpumalanga. The PER estimates that in 2018/19, on average, the costs of outsourced catering per PDE (R82) would be about 11% lower than the costs of providing catering services using public servants (R92 per PDE).