By Vincess Okushi
An international organization responsible for tracking economic growth, Oxfam, has disclosed that out of 358 health investments between 2010 and 2022, more than 56 percent went into private healthcare corporations operating in low and middle-income countries.
The latest findings by Oxfam Director in Africa, Fati N’Zi-Hassane disclosed that only $2.4 billion channeled into the health corporations can be tracked, while another 269 health investments’ values are undisclosed.
It noted that 81 percent of most of these health investments are being “lost from sight” and sub-invested out via a network of financial intermediaries, even as 80 percent are located in tax havens like Mauritius, Jersey, and the Cayman Islands.
Thus lamenting the lack of public accountability of these investments in the area of access to its improvement to healthcare provision for people living in poverty, especially women and girls, adding that it has heightened health scandals and human rights abuses.
“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.
‘‘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 so-called ‘development partnerships’ between rich countries and those of the Majority World.”
Meanwhile, Oxfam International’s Health Policy Lead 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.
“The Maputo Private Hospital in Mozambique, backed by the IFC during the pandemic, reportedly charged COVID-19 patients a $6,000 deposit for oxygen and $10,000 for a ventilator. Similarly, in Uganda, the Nakasero Hospital reportedly charged $1,900 per day for a COVID-19 bed in intensive care, while the TMR Hospital charged $116,000 for one patient who died from the virus.
“Nakasero Hospital is funded by France, the EU, and the IFC while TMR Hospital is supported by the UK and France.
“While the number of mothers dying in pregnancy and childbirth is rising around the world.”
According to Anna “Oxfam found that DFI-funded hospitals are far out of reach for those most needing life-saving healthcare.
“The average cost of an uncomplicated childbirth in these private hospitals is more than a year’s income for an average earner in the bottom 40 percent of the population, while the cost of a cesarean birth is more than two years’ income.
“In Nigeria, where nine in ten of the poorest women give birth with no midwife or skilled birth attendant.
“Oxfam tracked development funds from the EIB, Germany, France, and the IFC to the high-end private Lagoon Hospitals in Lagos, where the most basic maternity package costs more than nine years’ income for the poorest 10 percent of Nigerians.
Spent wisely, aid and other forms of government spending are essential in order to save lives and drive development.
“In lower-income countries doing the most to stop women dying in childbirth, 90 percent 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.
“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 World governments should also step up and be more assertive in directing foreign public investments into better health outcomes for their people.”
‘‘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.”
Oxfam wants a stop to all future direct and indirect DFI funding to private healthcare and called for an urgent, independent investigation into all current and historical investments in affected countries.
