FORMER Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak urged the Government to use its majority shareholding to reduce costs at private healthcare hospitals during the pandemic.
“Khazanah Nasional Bhd is still among the largest shareholder of IHH Healthcare Bhd. So, why can’t the current Perikatan Nasional Government use that as a bargaining chip to renegotiate prices with the private hospital chain company to reduce costs for COVID-19 treatment?” he asked, in a Facebook post.
Yesterday, a 66-year-old man from Seri Kembangan committed suicide after testing positive for COVID-19 for a second time.
He was first tested positive on Jan 7 and was treated at a private hospital, at a whopping cost of RM40,000.
Ever since testing positive for a second time, the elderly man was said to have been stressed over the matter, repeatedly telling his wife that “he is better off dead than suffering from COVID-19.”
Subsequently, Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) said that they could not reduce pricing at their facilities due to “indirect costs”.
“There are a lot of indirect costs that can’t be quantified in treating COVID-19 patients in private hospitals because (when) we have COVID-19 patients, we have to close the entire ward.
“If there is one patient, the whole ward is closed. That means they are going to lose income for not getting any patients to come into that area.
“We also have to pay a lot of additional staff to be around to take care of COVID-19 patients,” its president Dr Kuljit Singh was reported telling online news portal, Malaysiakini.
Najib pointed out that IHH owns 16 private hospitals in Malaysia; namely Pantai Hospitals (11), Gleneagles Hospitals (four) and the Prince Court Hospital (sold to IHH in 2019).
“And the Johor state government is the largest shareholder of the KPJ Healthcare Bhd, which owns 28 private hospitals nationwide,” the Pekan MP remarked. – Jan 24, 2021.
