Profit, profit, and yet more profit - Private hospitals and their motto

Just to follow up on the health care.

Private hospitals in Addis are alleged to charge a very exaggerated rate for the medicines used by patients during their stay there. Inside sources say that the hospitals charge up to 5 times the price of the medicine one would be required to pay at a pharmacy. A friend of mine informed me that they had to pay more than one thousand Birr for two – three hundred Birr worth of medicines, after his relative had stayed in one of these hospitals for six days.

I heard that the government controls the pharmacies and they can make a maximum profit of only 10%. It would be good if the authorities pay a visit to these hospitals.

Please leave your comments and let me know if you’ve had a similar experience.

Money, proper healthcare and traditional medicine

I wrote last time that I would write on schools in Addis. I disappeared owing to problems in accessing the blog edition site. Now that I can access it well, I’m back with more stories about everyday happenings in Addis.

Do allow me to shift from schools to one particular incident that got me thinking about our healthcare.

This is what happened to a friend of mine:

A person he knows closely had a car accident and suffered multiple rib fractures. He was taken to the biggest government hospital and they told him to go home after checking the X ray. His condition was not 'critical' enough to get him admitted in the hospital. Even if it was, there would probably be no beds available in the surgical ward. He was taken to a private hospital after three days because his health deteriorated, stayed there a few days and got discharged. After three days, he had to be taken again to the same hospital because he became very sick. The X ray revealed that he needed a surgical intervention. When the physician on duty consulted (on phone) the surgeon who was on ‘on call’ duty, the surgeon advised him to keep him till morning with some antibiotics and he’d see him in the morning (mind you – the surgeon was ‘on call’ and yet didn’t want to come). The duty physician, however, was not at all comfortable because (he believed) the patient was in a rather critical condition. So, he advised them to take him to another hospital and also offered an ambulance (they, of course, had to pay for it – Br. 150 for a ten minutes drive). They took him there hoping and praying that the surgeon on call would come. He came and did whatever he had to do and the patient is more or less in a stable condition now.

What I observed is that if you are poor and cannot afford to visit the pocket robbing private hospitals, it is very very unlikely that you will get a proper medical attention. Even if you can somehow afford to get robbed at these hospitals, the medical attention you get will depend on the physician’s mood. Whatever has happened to the word CARE – God knows. (Maybe it’s considered an archaic word by many health professionals here!)

If you want to apply for a health insurance, the insurance companies will ask you to buy also the life insurance – which is not affordable! So, unless you work in some of the big NGO’s or rich private companies or profit making government corporations, forget health insurance. A mother can only hope and pray that her children won’t get sick. She is struggling to buy bread and buying medicine is a luxury!

No wonder people still visit some dodgy traditional healers. They at least provide hope with their affordable ‘medicine’ and ‘treatment’!

(Please leave your comments.)

Addiswatch is back.

Hello...

I've learnt that this blog can be accesses directly at www.inblogs.net/addiswatch. I will keep updating this blog.....

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