Private health providers need to be kept under tight leash
THE crisis in the private health section has prompted ever-louder calls for ‘fundamental reform’ of the health service.
Most proposals are poorly thought through, unsupported by evidence and fail to address the biggest problems facing the private health service. The idea is neither new nor a credible way to secure the future of the health service, as quickly becomes apparent from examining the practicalities.
The case for exorbitant charging is typically centred around two objectives. The first is to make money and the second is to reduce unnecessary demand.
The private hospitals are transforming health care service into a quick money making sector. The private hospitals have mushroomed and turning medical doctors into money searching mercenaries armed with medication.
Anecdotal accounts of people having treatment delayed waiting for money to be paid are common and often attributed to a heavy appetite for money and lack of compassion. Yes, the private hospitals say there is no financial incentives to be prudent with a service if it is largely free at the point of use.
Because of the charges by the private hospitals there has been many unwanted deaths caused by the delays in the private hospitals while they are waiting for money.
Many Zimbabweans have died in the hands of care givers. The major cause of hospital deaths is treatment delay.
Many people are turning to private health providers that have mushroomed across the country because of poor infrastructure at public hospitals.
One of the supposedly main benefits of private treatment is that it is supposed to offer a much wider range of treatments than is available through the public hospitals including more specialised procedures and surgeries
This is mainly because cutting edge treatments are usually more expensive so the government cannot afford to offer them to everyone.
With the hope of receiving specialised class A treatment people will rush to private hospitals.
The other issue is that people have turned their face away from government institutions. So there is a belief that private hospitals are better than the public hospitals.
So private hospitals have slowly taken over and they have made healthcare as a source of funds. With the aims motivated by money the lives of the patients in private hospitals has been placed in the second position.
Zimbabwe’s public healthcare system is being sabotaged by the doctors. They now both compete for patients. Government treatment was free at the point of use for all Zimbabwean citizens and permanent residents, regardless of income or nationality. Government hospitals offer a wide range of services, including general medical care, maternity care, mental health services, and dental care. It is the fulfilment of the Government obligation to provide health care.
The wealthiest in society should contribute the most to the costs of a universal health service but in Zimbabwe’s situation it only benefits the doctors.
Allowing these hospitals to charge these fees is diabolic.
Exceptions would also be needed for people with certain health conditions, even among those with the means to pay. Imagine the bread winner is the one involved in a car accident and the hospital demands money before treating him. The situation needs every time to be taken into consideration. The hospital won’t touch him until they are paid. This created perverse incentives not to access the routine care and treatment that prevents more serious problems and helps to contain health service costs.
Even a relatively basic degree of fairness would substantially reduce the number of deaths due to waiting for money to be raised. What if a patient needs care but cannot pay at that time and the money will be available soon and cannot pay on the spot? If payment can be deferred until after treatment, should doctors be expected to withhold further necessary treatment until past debts are paid off?
Most people have a wrong belief that there is better treatment in private hospitals. Yet there is a way to waste money in the private hospital. Government hospitals might be congested but they will not ignore an urgent situation.
So the services provided and covered by the Government becomes public treatment.
All medical providers in the Zimbabwe both private and Government must be registered with the Medical Council. This guarantees that all providers meet a set of standards and are qualified to provide care.
Despite the cost private hospitals treat patience badly if the money delays to come. There is no awareness of where to report If you have experienced or seen poor care from a health care service. Patients must know that they have a right to complain to the organisation that provided or paid for the care. But above that there must be a government board where complaints must be put.
All health and social care service providers must have a complaints procedure that you can ask to see. This will tell you how to make a complaint.
We can go round and round but government must step in and deal with the commercialisation of health sector by the private care givers.
Zimbabwean medical personnel have become lovers of money and have thrown the compassion through the bin.
The call to regulate the charges for GP appointments and private hospitals is not an idea whose time has finally come. What is happening in the health service is ultimately the consequence of the political choices made over the past decade, including allowing doctors to double dip.
Again underinvestment in the health sector and other public services, a failure to address chronic staff shortages and the long-standing neglect of adult social care made the private hospitals become total mercenaries.
The Government already has a relatively efficient and fair way to fund health care through the tax system – a founding principle of the ministry that continues to enjoy strong support from the public.
The Government needs to look into this hyena attitude by the private health sector. The dying must not be taken advantage of. It is sad that private hospitals are all out to get money and they do not even refund. Without Government help people will be taken advantage of and will be killed in the name of private hospital.
These medical staff some sort of humanity. A balance must be found between maintaining dialogue with stakeholders, including the health industry, while also observing objectivity and independence.
Medicines: Similarly, to equipment, private hospitals need to buy medicines, and the cost of some of the newest ones developed will be expensive. Medication plays a vital role in treatment and recovery, so the private healthcare system needs access to the best available. This causes the private hospitals to charge exorbitantly and do not refund even if a patient dies.
There is a very punitive cost and there is no refund. There should be ways to recovery and put forward ways to finance health. The private hospital bills are really unrealistic.
vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk