John Ekongo
29 April 2008
Windhoek — The Ministry of Health and Social Services is owed close to N$9,4 million in patients' unpaid bills.
This came to light during a public accounts committee hearing chaired by MP Johan de Waal of the DTA of Namibia.
The committee was scrutinising observations made in the Ministry of Health and Social Services' audit report for 2007.
Kahijoro Kahuure, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Social Services, alongside his management team, informed the committee that the money owed is a result of patients failing to honour their bills.
Kahuure, however, declared that his ministry cannot turn members of the public away when they are unable to pay.
"We have to provide a service," he said.
According to the Kahuure, the Windhoek Central Hospital recently acquired a computerised database system, which can track patients' health and medical billing records.
The system has proven to be effective. It roped in some N$6 million at the Windhoek Central Hospital for last year.
Kahuure cautioned that whereas the authorities want the system to be up and running countrywide, it is too costly. This is further compounded by the fact that so far the ministry has only identified one company that is able to implement the system.
The committee also wanted to know about the subsistence and advance travel allowances staff members owe the health ministry.
Currently, personnel at the ministry are said to owe Government over N$900000.
"The outstanding debit balance list reflects an amount of N$904936,90," said Kahuure.
But at least during the financial year of 2005/6 and 2006/7, the ministry recovered an amount of N$652604,07, revealed Kahuure.
In order to curb this problem, the ministry has introduced several measures, including the recovery of outstanding amounts from personnel who are still in the employ of the ministry. Another measure cited was to refuse those staff members owing the ministry the privilege to travel until they have cleared outstanding advances.
"In the case of a staff member who has been transferred or promoted to other institutions within the public service, debit acceptance notes are submitted to the respective ministries, offices or agencies," stressed Kahuure.
This method is not always foolproof, as on instances the new employers refuse to accept these debit notes, leaving the ministry with no choice but to approach the staff member concerned directly to settle the amount.
For those who leave the public service, outstanding money is deducted from the leave gratuity payment, Director of Finance and Logistics, Henricus Beukes, informed the committee.
Beukes told the committee that for the financial year 2006/7 the health ministry had not overspent and has kept within its budget, a statement that was met with a nod of approval from members of the committee.
However, the hard-to-please committee chairman, De Waal, expressed discontent at the state of medical stores and the unavailability of medical supplies, saying that much of the money is spent on administration, a situation he wants to see reversed.
"The money must go to the basis of your purpose, to provide health care, make sure that there are medicines in the pharmacy, the hospitals are clean and people are well taken care of," said the DTA MP.
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