Government should get more involved in healthcare sector

New Philip Hospitals Chairperson and Managing Director Indrani Fernando has requested the Government to bring about a level of control over heavy charges imposed on buying medical equipment and over-the-top service agreement charges.

She told the Daily FT that buying medical equipment in Sri Lanka is very difficult as it is highly priced. “You can’t order equipment directly because you have to do through the local agent. You buy from the local agent with a huge mark-up.”

The service agreement does not help the healthcare sector any better as there is an additional charge when purchasing the service agreement. She asserted: “It comes to a couple of lakhs and this can be easily avoided. If I buy a machine for so many millions, naturally they have to give a good service.”

She went on to say that the Government should get more involved and the respective ministries should bring in regulation to help the private healthcare sector.

“The private health care sector handles 70% of the OPD patients and 25% of the in-ward patients. The major burden of the Government is taken over by the private hospitals. What the authorities should do is encourage insurance, which will let them seek private medical care.”

She further noted that a majority of people prefer to go to a private hospital rather than a Government hospital due to the high care given to patients.

Fernando also alerted a further problem that the healthcare sector undergoes: “We haven’t got a single health credit line for the healthcare sector. That is the inefficiency of the authorities. We don’t want anything free, but at a low interest rate.”