Private hospital beds for the poor

Private hospitals in Gauteng have been asked to open their wards to poor patients because state hospitals are full to overflowing, while private hospitals have 40 percent spare capacity.

Saturday Star, 19 September 2015

Gauteng health MEC, Qedani Mahlangu, said private hospitals would treat overflow patients from government hospitals and government would pay. She said the 16 000 beds at state hospitals were not enough to treat the province's 12-million citizens.

Mahlangu said the health department is looking at what regulations can be used to allow state patients to be treated in private facilities at the state's cost. She said the government planned to partner with the private sector to alleviate the current pressures on the state's resources. Mahlangu said a proposed "electronic-bed system" would help the department of health to tell which hospitals have available beds. But a formal agreement is yet to be signed between the government and private hospitals on the costs of transferring public health patients into the private sector. Gauteng public healthcare facilities have been buckling under pressure to accommodate the growing number of patients because of shortages of beds.

However, Mahlangu said this is a worldwide problem. Dr Nokuphila Mazamisa, chief director of hospital services in the province, said the private hospitals bed occupancy rate was at 60 percent while public hospitals were at 100 percent. She said high-level discussions with the private hospital groups would have to take place in order to agree on prices. Mazamisa described the proposed plan as a sensitive matter which needed to be well thought out before being implemented. She said it was ultimately about private hospital beds being accessible to indigent communities. Asked about the reasons for bed shortages, she said the admissions in public healthcare facilities far outweighed the number of people discharged.

Mazamisa said it is not ideal for any patient to wait for more than eight hours for a bed, but due to practical difficulties it does happen. She added she did not think the private sector would have a problem with sharing resources, but the qualifier would be the issue of affordability. Mediclinic chief executive, Koert Pretorius, said the group had not been formally approached, but the private sector was keen to contribute to the overall health of the country. He said a critical component to the success of this initiative would be the willingness of the state to increase the number of the nurses being trained at all levels, as ultimately additional capacity and resources will be required.

The Hospital Association of SA (Hasa) has welcomed the plan. Chief executive, Dumsiani Bomela, said service delivery required a combined effort from both the private and public sectors, and Hasa members looked forward to partnering with the government. He cautioned this would only work through means of formal discussions between the two sectors.