[afro-nets] Private wings in public hospitals?

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Private Wings in Government Hospitals?
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from Chan Chee Khoon <ckchan@usm.my> Malaysia (edited)

Some years back, as part of the government's corporatisation
policy, government hospitals were directed to increase the rate
of their cost recovery (at the time, patient charges at govern-
ment hospitals contributed in toto about 5-10% of the hospitals'
actual operational costs, i.e. government medical services were
being subsidised to the extent of 90-95%).

In preparation for corporatisation, government hospitals were
instructed to increase their cost recovery, so that the govern-
ment could reduce its health outlays which would be preferen-
tially allocated to the low income, while "those who could af-
ford to pay more should become less dependent on government sub-
sidies", or better yet, look to the private sector for their
healthcare needs. (This is the World Bank's favored "targeted
approach" for a rump public sector in healthcare, as privatisa-
tion proceeds to create markets for healthcare entrepreneurs,
and more generally, a generic template for the privatisation of
social services). It is clear that our under-financed government
healthcare will become even less available to the poor when pri-
vate wings are set up in government hospitals as human and mate-
rial resources are re-allocated to serve the dictates of the
healthcare market rather than the needs of the poor. Any expec-
tations that private wings will generate revenue for government
hospitals for cross subsidies to poorer patients, have been dis-
credited.

It is furthermore predictable that private wings will soon be
encouraged to service the regional 'health tourism' market as
well (tourists coming to Malaysia for cheap treatment).

The Citizens' Health Initiative has repeatedly voiced its con-
cern over such developments. We are not against foreign nation-
als benefiting from our national healthcare capabilities, indeed
we can take pride in this, but we are much concerned when more
and more of our local health resources are diverted to serving
regional healthcare priorities as dictated by economic (market)
demand, rather than on the basis of need. The proposal to intro-
duce private wings in government hospitals is an unworthy idea
which should be definitively scrapped.

Dr Chan Chee Khoon
Co-ordinator
Citizens' Health Initiative
May 7, 2004
Penang, Malaysia
mailto:ckchan@usm.my