Manto Wastes No Time Not Making Sense 4
Barely two days back on the job Minister of Health makes another puzzling comment:
Tshabalala-Msimang faulted private hospitals for spending R66bn on treating only 7-million people while the state had only R59bn for the treatment of more than 30-million.
I’m not sure if Manto was misquoted, I hope she was. The fact of the matter is that private hospitals didn’t spend R66 billion on 7 million patients, those 7 million patients spent R66 billion on themselves. That government spends only R59 billion on 30 million patients (roughly R2000 per patient per year) is more of an embarrassment for Manto than for the private sector.
I just hope the plan is to raise the amount spent on public health care, not decrease the amount spent in the private sector and then pretend that the two are equal.
If these figures are correct, it means that 37 million South Africans require hospital treatment in any given year, out of an estimated total of 46 million. I know we have a lot of sickos in South Africa, but I didn’t know it was that bad. As for the R2000 a year per patient in public hospitals, don’t forget that a lot of people contribute to the cost of their treatment out of their own pockets. As well they might, if they can afford to do so.
I think it just means that 37 million people are not part of a medical aid and therefore rely on public health services. The 7 million people on private medical aids is probably a larger number than the actual number of people that are hospitalised in the private health care system.
‘squeeze me? Is this the same Manto that had a liver transplant at a private hospital three months ago? I mean, what’s a liver transplant cost?
If she wants to state that “spending” money on patients is a problem, surely she is part of that problem?
It’s actually worse than that. She was treated in the private wing of Johannesburg General hospital. The private wing is supposed to generate money to supplement the public wards but it’s so badly managed it’s losing money so in actual fact public funds are being used to subsidise a ‘private’ hospital.