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Health department deaf to ideas, say private hospitals
Tamar Kahn, Business Day
2008-06-13
Private hospitals yesterday complained to Parliament that their suggestions to the health department on ways to improve South Africans access to healthcare without resorting to regulation were falling on deaf ears.
The sector is facing increasing regulatory pressure as the government strives to increase the affordability and availability of health services with new laws, such as the controversial National Health Amendment Bill before Parliament. The bill proposes a new process for annual tariff negotiations between medical schemes and healthcare providers, and has run into stiff opposition from private hospitals and doctors, who say it amounts to price control. Private hospitals were frustrated by the governments refusal to allow private hospitals to sell their clinical services to the state as they had done in other countries , Richard Friedland, CEO of Netcare, said.
The private sector has for many years been knocking on the doors of the department of health. Its ironic that weve established a reputation for public-private partnerships in the UK and Lesotho, he said. Netcare and its rival, LifeHealthcare, won contracts from the UKs National Health Service to provide cataract and orthopaedic services to reduce long waiting lists. Netcare has also won a contract from the Lesotho government to provide clinical services to a 390-bed hospital in the capital, Maseru. Private hospitals were willing to go into public-private partnerships that provided primary care, diagnostic tests, emergency and hospital services to the state, yet had so far been restricted to a build, operate and transfer model, Friedlands colleague, Victor Litlhakanyane, told members of Parliaments health committee.
As a result, there had been few public-private partnerships in SA. These included the Universitas-Pelonomi, Settlers-Port Alfred, Humansdorp and Polokwane Hospital renal care initiatives, he said. Health director-general Thami Mseleku said public-private partnerships should be viewed with caution. He said private hospitals were self-serving because they were seeking to expand their businesses with such initiatives. The private hospitals said they had long-standing problems securing an audience with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang . It had taken the minister seven months to agree to their request for a meeting to discuss pricing. That meeting took place this weekend. We feel like an orphan tugging at the skirts of a mother who will not listen, Nkaki Matlala, chairman-designate of the Hospital Association of SA, said.
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