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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 11 2012 00:03 | LAST UPDATED Feb 11 2012 00:03 |
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Private hospitals provided emergency medical treatment worth tens of millions of rands to poor South Africans every year, the Hospital Association of South Africa (Hasa) said on Friday. It was responding to claims by South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande that private hospitals turn away dying patients who do not have money or medical cover. Hasa chairperson Dr Nkaki Matlala said in a statement that private hospitals adhered to a strict code of ethics. They were also bound by law to provide emergency medical treatment to any patient who arrived at their doors in a critical condition. "Over the past four years, private hospitals have spent tens of millions of rands on providing emergency medical services and treatment to patients who could not afford it," said Matlala. "These services include everything from ambulance transport to life support, life-saving surgery and admission to intensive care units depending on the patient's condition." Matlala said that under the National Health Act, private hospitals were required to stabilise critically ill patients before transferring them to state institutions for further treatment. In most cases, he said, this was done at the hospital's own expense, and they were not reimbursed by the government. The private hospital sector also offered free cataract programmes, surgery to help alleviate backlogs of patients awaiting prostatectomies and mastectomies, and other specialised surgical procedures.  CONTINUES BELOW "It is very important that the truth and facts should not escape us as people seek to popularise the national health insurance," he said. Nzimande, who is also Higher Education Minister, reportedly told an SACP Red October rally last weekend that the SACP wanted "quality health care for all". He called for an end to what he claimed was the private health sector's practice of leaving injured people to die if they had no money to pay the medical expenses. -- Sapa TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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