Health actors: How to cut Covid patients costs
Dar es Salaam. Health actors yesterday recommended four measures that could help in curbing the third Covid-19 infections wave currently spreading.
They include cutting the costs of oxygen cylinders and subsidizing private hospitals with a view to cutting their operational-cum-treatment costs.
The proposed recommendations also include involving private hospitals in planning when it comes to the national response of the pandemic as well as putting sufficient money in the public awareness campaign.
The suggestions were issued during the Covid-19 national dialogue organised by the Tanzania Health Summit under the chairmanship of Dr Chakou Halfani.
Bugando Hospital director general Fabian Massaga called on the government to step in and see how the costs for oxygen cylinders could be taken down.
Dr Massaga said the cost for an oxygen cylinder is around Sh40,000, which is too high for ordinary citizens to afford.
He said that a Covid-19 patient could use up to 12 oxygen cylinders daily - at a total cost of up to Sh480,000.
The Bugando Hospital chief said that, as the pandemic continues to bite, demand for oxygen cylinders is also rising.
Before the pandemic, 100 oxygen cylinders were being used at Bugando, but now the number has gone up several times, he said without specifying the numbers.
“Let’s take precautions - and if it happens that we catch Covid-19, we must rush to hospital,” he said.
Dr Harrison Chuwa of the Aga Khan Hospital echoed the same views, urging the government to provide financial support to private hospitals.
This, he said, would lower operational costs as a matter of fact.
“The government can support us either by exemptions (tax exemptions) or equipment,” said Dr Chuwa.
He said during the first Covod-19 wave in mid-March 2020, the costs for personal protective equipment (PPE) climbed nearly 10 times.
Dr Chuwa also said that private insurance companies were not covering treatment costs for the pandemic, letting the whole burden fall on patients.
“It is hard for ordinary citizens to afford paying for Covid-19 treatment,” he said, referring to the Sh480,000 cost of 12 oxygen cylinders per patient per day.
He also asked the authorities to involve the private sector in national response planning as a matter of routine.
“If we work together in planning, implementation of the plans will go smoothly,” he said.
Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT) President Shadrack Mwaibambe stressed the need for the government and the private sector to massively invest in public awareness campaigns.
“If we are to reach a majority of the population, we must inject in more funds,” said Dr Mwaibambe.
The government alone, he said, could not make it - and he thus called for the profit-making private institutions to provide their support.
“We need to come up with the Covid-19 fund and they have to contribute because if we don’t curb the Covid-19, that profit they are making today, will no longer be there in the future,” said Dr Mwaibambe.
Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima called for Tanzanians to stay away from the spreading rumors that Covid-19 vaccine is unsafe.
“Now everyone on social media is a spokesperson, don’t listen to them. Stick only on what the Health Ministry and its experts say,” said the minister.
She said like the World Health Organisation (WHO), the government proved beyond reasonable doubt that the vaccine was safe for use.
Additional report by Ashura Ngwai
