Johannesburg - The Hospital Association of SA (HASA) is disappointed by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi's "unwarranted" attack on private hospitals, it said on Friday.
HASA chairperson Nkaki Matlala said that Motsoaledi's comments "came as a surprise" as the private sector was involved in discussion with the health department to improve the quality of healthcare.
"The private hospital sector is committed to working together with the public sector since we believe it is only by working together...that viable reform can be achieved," he said.
Addressing the Congress of SA Trade Unions' central committee on Wednesday Motsoaledi said that private hospitals charged hefty prices for simple procedures and that this should be changed through regulation.
He used the example of a private hospital charging between R6 000 and R15 000 for a circumcision which costs R400 at a public hospital.
Matlala said the R15 000 quoted by Motsoaledi was probably the result of an isolated billing case which should not be used to "taint the private sector".
He said private hospitals conducted about 18 000 circumcisions a year at an average cost of about R4 300 per procedure done on an adult. It costs R600 for a newborn, he said.
"Firstly, the price patients pay in the public sector is in no way representative of the amount it actually costs the state to provide the procedure.
"Secondly, such comparisons fail to take into account the significant differences in the standards of care provided in the private sector versus those in the public sector and the cost of capital incurred by the private sector," Matlala said.
He said that although government incurred the same running costs, it was budgeted for nationally and in certain instances absorbed by Treasury.
Private hospitals incurred a number of additional costs that the public sector did not.
Motsoaledi also said that hospital prices were driving up medical scheme costs, over the past five years.
Matlala said hospital price increases were about seven percent, which was below the 7.8% salary increase over the same period of time.
"The finger pointing at the private hospital sector is opportunistic as there are numerous participants in the healthcare sector in South Africa.
"Blaming private hospitals so singularly distorts the realities of how healthcare is actually costed in South Africa," he said.
