The Swaziland Government
has not paid medical bills running into millions of dollars in neighbouring
South Africa and as a result sick Swazis are being denied treatment.
South African health
institutions stopped giving medical assistance under the Phalala Fund on 19
March 2018, according to a report in the Swazi
Observer newspaper on Friday (4 May
2018). More than 100 people have been denied treatment, the newspaper reported.
The objective
of the Phalala Fund is to assist deserving Swazi citizens who
would otherwise not have access to specialist medical care to get it either,
within Swaziland or ‘in special circumstances’ outside the kingdom.
Somntongo Member of
Parliament Sandile Nxumalo the chair of the parliament select committee set up
in 2017 to investigate the administration of the Phalala Fund said people would
die if government did not attend to the situation as a matter of urgency.
The suspension of services
is nothing new. The Phalala Fund has been riddled with corruption and
inefficiencies for years.
In October 2017, the Times of Swaziland
reported at least three people had died because they could not
get treatment after services were suspended because bills had not been paid.
At the time the Swazi Government owed E170 million
(US$12 million).
Many times in the past South Africa stopped taking
patients because of unpaid bills. For example, in
2014 a Ministry of Health’s Senate Portfolio Committee Report
said E40 million (less than a quarter of the 2017 debt) was unpaid and patients
were being refused treatment.
In November 2014, the Accountant General Phestecia
Nxumalo reported that the Phalala Fund had been defrauded of E9 million because
single
bills had been paid multiple times.
As long ago as 2006 a
report published by the World Bank recommended sweeping reforms
of the scheme, but these have not taken place.
The report said ‘only a tiny segment’ of the Swazi population benefitted from the large medical subsidy the government paid. It said there were no cost-effective guidelines so the fund could be used on patients who were too sick to benefit from treatment.
Also, fees and other prices were not negotiated before treatment and were ‘completely supplier-determined’.
The report said ‘only a tiny segment’ of the Swazi population benefitted from the large medical subsidy the government paid. It said there were no cost-effective guidelines so the fund could be used on patients who were too sick to benefit from treatment.
Also, fees and other prices were not negotiated before treatment and were ‘completely supplier-determined’.
The report concluded, the fund provided a ‘blank
cheque’ for South African doctors and hospitals: whatever amount they asked is
paid for by Government, since it had no choice but to pay up.
Meanwhile, within Swaziland itself a health crisis continues because the government has not paid bills for medicines and supplies.
Meanwhile, within Swaziland itself a health crisis continues because the government has not paid bills for medicines and supplies.
Early in January 2018
health facilities were reported to have run out of vaccines against polio and
tuberculosis and new-born babies were being put a risk.
In June 2017, Senator
Prince Kekela told parliament that at least five people had died as a result of
the drug shortages. About US$18 million was reportedly owed to drug companies in May 2017.
As ordinary people died the
Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini revealed that King Mswati and the Queen Mother
paid for him to travel to Taiwan for his own medical treatment. Dlamini was not elected PM by the people of
Swaziland. He was personally appointed by the King, as were all other
government ministers and top judges in the kingdom. None of Swaziland’s senators
are elected by the people.
Dlamini celebrated his 75th
birthday in 2017. The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati,
reported (5 June 2017), ‘The Prime Minister said he was grateful that when
Their Majesties were informed about his ailment in April, they responded
hastily and ordered that he be taken to the best doctors in Taiwan, Taipei.
‘“Their Majesties gave
orders that I go to the best and well experienced doctors in Taiwan. I am now
looking forward to turning 76 years and I thank God for keeping me safe,” he
said.’
The nature of his illness
has not been publicly revealed.
See also
MEDICINE SHORTAGE: FIVE DIE
DRUG SHORTAGE CRISIS DEEPENS
SWAZI
GOVT ‘KILLING ITS OWN PEOPLE’
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