...calls for stop of direct, indirect funding to private healthcare
It is an old saying that 'Health is Wealth', but many Nigerians are in double jeopardy as they do not have good health and also wealth to remedy the situation, which an international Civil Society Organisation, CSO, Oxfam, has accused some European countries of gagging poor Nigerians and other Africans with expensive private healthcare services via direct and indirect investments to some private hospitals.
This was contained in an investigative report released by Oxfam on the negative impact the funding of some private hospitals are having on the poor in Nigeria, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, and others, which it alleged that countries including United Kingdom, UK, France, Germany, and other rich countries.
According to Oxfam, in Nigeria, nine in 10 of the poorest women give birth with no midwife or skilled birth attendant.
The report reads in part, " Vulnerable people being bypassed or bankrupted as rich countries pour development billions into Africa's private healthcare investments of taxpayers' money into dodgy deals, profiteering and exploitation, health scandals and human rights abuses --all with little or no accountability.
"This includes private hospitals imprisoning patients and retaining deceased relatives until bills are paid.
"Patients living in poverty in Africa are being bankrupted by private healthcare corporations backed by multi-million-dollar investments from development finance institutions (DFIs) run by the UK, French, German and other rich country governments.
"DFIs like the World Bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) invest public funds via the private sector to help foster economic development in the Majority World and tackle poverty.
"However, Oxfam publishes an investigation on DFI funding into private hospital chains and other for profit healthcare corporations operating in low- and middle-income countries, including African countries, and finds cases of them: Extorting and imprisoning patients including newborn babies, even retaining dead bodies, for the non-payment of bills; Profiteering, including during the pandemic, and routinely over-charging patients into bankruptcy and poverty; Denying treatment to those who can't afford it --even in emergencies-- and pricing services and medicines wildly out of reach of most people in local communities; Being involved in tax tricks, price rigging, and medical negligence leading to deaths; Failing to prevent human rights abuses, including organ trafficking by staff and exploitative practices, for example by pressuring patients to have unnecessary and expensive medical procedures.
"African countries covered in the report include Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Mozambique."
The Director, Oxfam in Africa, Fati N'Zi-Hassane said, "These abuses are profoundly disturbing. And they're happening while Africa's woefully underfunded public healthcare crumbles at the feet of a mountain of debt, the result of an unfair global financial system designed by the same Western powers. Once again, this research shows the dishonesty of socalled 'development partnerships' between rich countries and those of the Majority World."
According to Oxfam's investigation into investments by European DFIs into the private healthcare sectors of Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique and other Majority World countries finds: 358 health investments between 2010 and 2022, more than half (56 per cent) of which went into private healthcare corporations operating in low- and middle-income countries; At least $2.4 billion channeled into health corporations that can be tracked, but Oxfam found at least another 269 health investments for which the value is not disclosed; Most of these health investments (81 percent) are being "lost from sight" --sub-invested out via a network of financial intermediaries, 80 per cent of them located in tax havens like Mauritius, Jersey and the Cayman Islands; Little to no public accountability of these investments and no evidence as to whether they are improving access to healthcare for people living in poverty, especially women and girls;
Extremes of private hospital chains offering 5-star hotel treatment for politicians, sports stars and celebrities at elite prices, through to people being extorted, exploited or excluded depending on their ability to pay.
The Health Policy Lead, Oxfam International, Anna Marriott, said: "Half the world's population can't get essential healthcare. Every second, sixty people are plunged into poverty by medical bills.
"Donor countries and development banks have long promised that they can drive down healthcare costs for people living in poverty by investing taxpayers' money into the private sector. Instead, costs are rocketing up and causing harm."
Oxfam also maintained that aid and other forms of government spending are essential in order to save lives and drive development.
It pointed out that Ethiopia successfully used aid to achieve most of the health-related Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, by 2015, including the reduction of maternal deaths by more than 70 per cent.
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In lower-income countries doing the most to stop women dying in childbirth, 90 per cent of their healthcare comes from the public sector. COVID-19 has demonstrated how health security is dependent on delivering healthcare for all goals everywhere as soon as possible.
However, Oxfam called for a stop to all future direct and indirect DFI funding to private healthcare and an urgent, independent investigation into all current and historical investments.
"It is more urgent than ever that governments stop this dangerous diversion of public funds to private healthcare and instead deliver on aid and other public funding promises in order to strengthen public healthcare systems that can deliver for everybody. Majority of World governments should also step up and be more assertive in directing foreign public investments into better health outcomes for their people," Marriott pointed.
"African governments must purge their health sectors of these injustices and inequalities.' They must stand strong in the face of pressures to privatize public goods and services like healthcare to preventable deaths, especially those of women and children", said N'Zi-Hassane.
