HEALTH Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and
JSE-listed private hospital group Netcare are at loggerheads over its
partnership with the Lesotho government. On Friday the parties sketched
two very different pictures of Lesotho’s flagship hospital to the
Competition Commission’s health market inquiry.
The Queen Mamohato
Memorial Hospital (QMMH) is strategically important to Netcare because
it is the first public-private partnership it has concluded in Africa
that includes the provision of clinical services, which it has been
unable to do in South Africa. However the South African government is
wary of such projects, fearful of getting caught up in long-term
contracts that prove more expensive than anticipated
On Friday morning Netcare made its first public oral submission to the inquiry, describing the improvements in the quality of care available to patients in Lesotho since the QMMH replaced the delapidated government-run Queen Elizabeth II hospital in 2011. Mortality fell 41%, the pediatric death rate from pneumonia fell 65% and the maternal death rate fell 13%, Netcare head of health policy and strategy Melanie da Costa told the inquiry.
That afternoon, the minister deviated from his prepared presentation to take issue with Netcare’s portrayal of the project, saying it had proved so expensive that the Lesotho health minister had appealed for his help to exit the contract.
On Friday morning Netcare made its first public oral submission to the inquiry, describing the improvements in the quality of care available to patients in Lesotho since the QMMH replaced the delapidated government-run Queen Elizabeth II hospital in 2011. Mortality fell 41%, the pediatric death rate from pneumonia fell 65% and the maternal death rate fell 13%, Netcare head of health policy and strategy Melanie da Costa told the inquiry.
That afternoon, the minister deviated from his prepared presentation to take issue with Netcare’s portrayal of the project, saying it had proved so expensive that the Lesotho health minister had appealed for his help to exit the contract.
