• Dep Min says regulations will be tightened gradually
• Immediate enforcement could force some to close

The Government cannot immediately enforce strict standards on private hospitals as this could result in many hospitals facing difficulties in continuing their operations and even being forced to close, Deputy Health Minister Dr Hansaka Wijemuni said.

Responding to questions from The Daily Morning yesterday (30), he said the Government was planning to gradually strengthen the regulatory mechanism for the private health sector, with several regulatory measures expected to be introduced over the next few months.

“There is a separate unit for monitoring private health services. There is a separate Director, a separate office and a separate staff. However, when looking from outside, it may appear that these services are not being properly monitored,” he said.

Dr Wijemuni said both the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) and the Health Ministry were involved in regulating the private health sector. “The CAA also looks into these matters, while the Ministry also carries out regulation. The CAA can look into matters such as prices and outdated reagents, but it cannot look into everything,” he said.

He acknowledged that there were shortcomings in standards in certain areas of the private health sector, but said the Government had to take into account the possible impact of immediately imposing stricter requirements. “If we try to strictly enforce some of these standards immediately, many hospitals would actually face difficulties in continuing their operations. Since there needs to be a private hospital sector, we are strict about some matters, while we expect to standardise some other matters gradually over time.”

Dr Wijemuni said regulatory measures were already being implemented, although the Government was not yet moving towards major punitive action against private hospitals. “We are already implementing them, but we are not going towards the kind of major punishment that can be seen from outside,” he said.

The Deputy Health Minister said one of the main issues affecting private hospitals was the lack of doctors employed on a permanent basis. “If we take a private hospital, ask how many doctors they have in their permanent cadre. They do not have that. What they do is pay doctors working in Government hospitals a small amount per hour and get them to work there after their duty hours,” he said.

He said many private hospitals were therefore relying on doctors working in the Government health service. “If we introduce a law tomorrow saying that they must show the number of doctors and specialists they have and that they cannot continue without meeting that requirement, many of these hospitals would have to close. That is also a problem,” he said.

However, Dr Wijemuni said the Government would introduce such requirements in the future as the number of doctors in the country increases. He said private hospitals would then have to recruit doctors by offering salaries closer to those paid in the Government health service.

He also said the private health insurance sector had not developed sufficiently, with most insurance policies placing limits on the level of coverage provided to patients. “If we admit a patient to a private sector ICU, sometimes after two or three days the insurance company stops covering the bill. Then the patient is brought back to a Government hospital,” he said.

Dr Wijemuni said the Government had prepared a specific programme with targets to develop the private health sector, noting that regulation, insurance and human resource management all had to be addressed together. “We cannot do all this at once within two years. We have prepared a specific programme with targets. Our hope is to put these things in place in the future. Regulation, insurance policies and how human resources are managed all have to be addressed together. We cannot develop the sector simply by introducing laws,” he said.